Mayors: Funaro wins; Fioravanti and Manfredi on the podium, with more southern candidates in the top ranks

Eleven more points also go to the mayor of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla, who has thus managed to stay well clear of the bottom spot he occupied last year – a position now reclaimed by his counterpart in Trapani, Giacomo Tranchida, who remains at the bottom of the table in 2024 as well.

Compared with the past, however, in addition to Manfredi and Basile, there is a much stronger presence from the South at the top of the rankings. Just above the mayor of Messina, in fourth place, is Massimo Zedda, for example. Now in his third term as mayor of Cagliari – having returned to the post he previously held between 2011 and 2019 following a spell as leader of the opposition in the Sardinian Regional Council – Zedda has gained eight points compared to last year, securing a ‘yes’ vote from 63 out of every 100 Cagliari residents. And the central and southern Italian representation in the top rankings also includes the mayor of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, in sixth place with 61 per cent, consolidating last year’s already excellent performance, former Minister of Justice Clemente Mastella in Benevento, repeating his 2025 feat, and Vincenzo Voce in Crotone.

With less than a year to go before a major local election – in which almost all of Italy’s major cities will be holding polls – it is clear that the Governance Poll rankings will be scrutinised by parties and coalitions, which are only now, in the coming weeks, beginning to get serious about selecting their candidates.

Alongside Gaetano Manfredi, who traditionally receives encouraging figures in the annual survey, Roberto Gualtieri is among the mayors now in the final year of their first term. The news is good for him too, as the 54 per cent attributed to him in this year’s edition indicates a marked recovery compared with 2025, with an increase of eight percentage points and a rise of no fewer than 48 places. The situation is similar in Turin for Stefano Lo Russo, who, with 55 per cent of the vote, occupies 33rd place alongside Silvia Salis and the mayor of Ancona, Daniele Silvetti, gaining 4.5 points compared with last year. Matteo Lepore’s result in Bologna is less impressive; he remains one point above the 50 per cent threshold but drops to 64th place, losing 2.5 points compared with the 2025 edition. In Milan, meanwhile, Beppe Sala reaches the end of his second term in tenth place, with 59.5 per cent confirming his solid support; this is despite the legal troubles over building projects that have involved the administration, although these have so far resulted in a series of acquittals.

But the Governance Poll, of course, is not a mock election, for the simple reason that, for example, there are no candidates. Rather, its purpose is to gauge the relationship between the mayor and their fellow citizens, which is influenced by a myriad of factors combining administrative decisions, communication skills and the city’s economic and social conditions. From this perspective, the survey reveals some shifts in the overall approval ratings of mayors: 74 out of 92 mayors – that is, 80 per cent – have reached the 50 per cent mark, whereas last year this figure stood at 85 per cent of those ‘assessed’.

It is difficult to draw any clear conclusions from these figures. But it is clear that mayors often find themselves playing the thankless role of scapegoat, even on issues over which they have only indirect authority, starting with security: with every incident in the news, the mayor ends up in the dock without much consideration being given to the role of the State or the local council’s actual capacity to intervene.