Liguria, why Meloni managed to win back the region despite the Toti chaos

These elections have two winners. The first is Marco Bucci, of course. The second is Giorgia Meloni, because it was the premier who imposed the candidacy of the mayor of Genoa, the man of doing, in the front row in the reconstruction of the Morandi bridge, to overcome the shadow of the corruption investigation that has swept the Toti council. A choice that in the end turned out to be decisive and winning, which also confirms a sort of unbeatability at this stage of the premier and the centre-right. All the more so if this victory comes little more than a month after Giovanni Toti's two-year plea bargain for corruption and after the presentation of a manoeuvre that certainly cannot be defined as electoral.

And then betting on Bucci did not come at no cost. Compared to the European elections, Fdi lost almost 12 points, leaving the Pd in the lead with almost twice as many votes as Meloni's Brothers. Probably because it was precisely the premier's party that supported more than others on the centre-right the two civic parties in favour of the mayor who - it should be pointed out - lost in his own city, Genoa, where the Toti case had its beginning and its peak.

The losers are also more than one. In addition to Andrea Orlando, among the illustrious losers in first place is Giuseppe Conte and immediately after Elly Schlein. The index finger is pointed first of all at the M5s leader, who first with his veto on Matteo Renzi and Italia Viva and then with the clash on the eve of the vote with Beppe Grillo, a Genoese Doc, has certainly not favoured the candidate of the wide camp. However, it is much more the Dems who are burnt. Orlando is one of the top leaders of the PD. His is a stinging defeat. Losing despite the Toti case means that the electorate still considered the centre-right more credible than the coalition that supported Orlando. There is a significant statistic to confirm this: at the European elections in June (where voting was done with the proportional system and there were no coalitions) the sum of the centre-left parties exceeded 47%, which becomes 50 by adding the Renzians, while the centre-right remained firm at 44%.

At the starting blocks, therefore, the Broad Camp had several points ahead. There has therefore been an important recovery on the part of the centre-right and there is no doubt that this can be attributed to the choice of Bucci. Now the attention immediately shifts to Emilia Romagna and Umbria, where the vote will take place in about twenty days. The centre-left hoped for a hat-trick. Liguria marks a heavy setback that is destined to be reflected in the 17-18 November test because it directly affects the tightness of the current alliance.