The centre-left conquers Agrigento. Who is Sodano: the UN assistant and former M5s deputy who took part in X Factor

Michele Sodano, candidate of the centre-left (Controcorrente, Partito Democratico and Casa Riformista), is the new mayor of Agrigento. He overcame the centre-right challenger (Fi-Fdi-Udc and autonomists), Gerlando 'Dino' Alonge, in the runoff. Sodano had narrowly missed victory in the first round, stopping at 39.1%.

The centre-left thus snatched the first citizen's chair of the hill town on the south-west coast of Sicily from the centre-right. The outgoing mayor is in fact Francesco Miccichè, a doctor and centre-right independent, who has been in office since 21 October 2020 until the renewal of his mandate in June 2026.

Born in Agrigento, 37 years old, the new mayor of Agrigento graduated in 2012 with a degree in Business Economics and Management from Bocconi University in Milan and obtained a Master of Science in Management of Creative Business Processes at Copenhagen Business School in 2015. He worked as Finance Assistant for the United Nations in Copenhagen and then continued as Project Manager for Wunderman, an advertising agency of the WPP group.

In 2018, during that year's political elections, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the Agrigento uninominal constituency with the 5 Star Movement, where he played an active role in the 5th Budget, Treasury and Planning Commission. He is a member of the Italian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He is majority rapporteur of the 2020 Budget Law and first signatory of the law that raised the percentage of the 'Resto al Sud' measure from 35% to 50%. In 2021, he broke with the Five Stars: he abstained during the confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies for the Draghi government, and was expelled from the M5S, along with twenty other MPs who voted against or abstained. He switched to the mixed group in the non-attached component.

After his parliamentary experience, Sodano joined Alessandro Di Battista's cultural and political association Schierarsi, to promote the collection of signatures for the recognition of the State of Palestine. In February 2025, he joined the political movement ControCorrente - Lottare x Restare, founded by the Sicilian Regional Assembly deputy and former hyena Ismaele La Vardera, of which he became president and national department coordinator.