Regionals, from Veneto to Campania, the candidates in pole and the riddles to be solved

The political synthesis is still not there. A one-and-a-half-hour summit was not enough for the centre-right leaders to untie the knot of gubernatorial candidates for the regional elections, a puzzle whose crucial piece remains Veneto. Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini, Antonio Tajani and Maurizio Lupi had to leave the dossier hanging at the end of the meeting at Palazzo Chigi. No one, at the moment, is willing to give up. So much so that Meloni eventually said, according to reports in parliamentary circles: Either we find an agreement, or I decide. The discussion is adjourned until Monday, when a new meeting will be staged.

The confrontation was long overdue because, although there are no election dates in all the regions on the ballot (the hypothesis of an election day at the end of October has not yet been ruled out), the time for making choices is approaching. The box on which it is most complicated to find a square is that of Veneto. FI has put Flavio Tosi on the table. But the tug-of-war is between FdI (senators Raffaele Speranzon and Luca De Carlo are the first options) and the League, which should win in the end according to the recurrent forecasts in the majority: Alberto Stefani would be the card with which to claim continuity with Luca Zaia, who will not be able to stand again but in recent days has stressed the weight that a list in his name can have, "40-45%". This hypothesis is still on the table, even if there is some perplexity among the allies. Certainly, the outgoing governor and his team are aiming to play a leading role in this game, and are waiting to assess the proposals coming from Rome as long as they are not decisions dropped from above. Meanwhile, the coalition of centre-left political and civic forces has announced the candidature of the former mayor of Treviso Giovanni Manildo.

No one confirms that this was explicitly discussed during the summit, but one of the hypotheses circulating among parliamentarians would be to deploy Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi in Campania, and to include the Veneto governor in the government team. For Campania, however, the hypothesis that Edmondo Cirielli, of FdI, will run is considered more concrete at the moment, but the allies would not agree to clear his name before an overall agreement is reached, so much so that they have relaunched the idea of focusing on a civic candidate. Meanwhile, Roberto Fico's candidacy in Campania seems to have been unblocked. Elly Schlein has met the outgoing president Vincenzo De Luca and, according to information, the latter's prejudice on the former president of the Chamber of Deputies has been dropped. De Luca was reassured that the work done over the years would be recognised and reiterated his intention to present his own list at the regional elections next autumn.

In Tuscany, the outgoing governor of Tuscany Eugenio Giani is moving towards re-election. After a very long confrontation with Schlein and his own at the Nazareno, Giani should be confirmed in the end. But the perimeter of the alliance still needs to be defined, as Schlein insists on involving the M5s even though Conte himself has made it clear that he will not do so. In the region, the centre-right is leaning towards getting FdI's Alessandro Tomasi, the mayor of Pistoia, onto the field.

In the centre-left, there is also the Puglia case, with former Bari mayor Andrea Decaro the favourite, but without the circle being closed, partly because he does not like the plans of outgoing governor Michele Emiliano and former governor Nichi Vendola, who plan to run for regional council. In the centre-right, the focus is on Mauro D'Attis, a Forza Italia deputy, vice-chairman of the Anti-mafia parliamentary commission and regional commissioner of the party.