"
Today good vote to the citizens of Bologna and Rome who choose to participate and the primaries
. And a big thank you to the many volunteers who are making this beautiful day of #democracy possible", is the message on twitter from the secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta.
Today #buonvoto to the citizens of #Bologna and #Roma who choose the participation and the #primaries.
And a big thank you to the many volunteers who are making this beautiful day of #democracy possible.
- Enrico Letta (@EnricoLetta) June 20, 2021
The point -
First weekend in the white zone, warm from the sea and also the European match Italy-Wales: these are the many "pitfalls" that threaten participation, from 8 to 21,
in the primary in Rome and Bologna
, with which the center-left has decided to choose its candidates for mayor for the October administrative elections. Letta, while aware of the difficulties, pushes for mobilization: "Thanks to the many volunteers - he said yesterday - who are working to make it possible for thousands of citizens to participate in the primary in Bologna and Rome. To the critics of our preference for participation, I say that we are like that. And, on this, we will not change ".
The challenge between candidates and the stakes, in the capital and in the city of the two Towers, are different but equally crucial for the Democratic Party and for the alliances in the center-left.
If in Rome the outcome is considered a bit obvious, with the former minister Roberto Gualtieri
given as a favorite and to whom the support of the ministers Orlando and Guerini and the president of the EP David Sassoli arrived yesterday,
much more fierce was the election campaign of the two Bolognese candidates
: the councilor Pd Matteo Lepore and the mayor of San Lazzaro di Savena, Isabella Conti, close to Iv and Matteo Renzi but who presented herself as independent, also attracting pieces of the local dem minority.
In the capital there are 7 players
: Imma Battaglia, Giovanni Caudo, Paolo Ciani, Stefano Fassina, Cristina Grancio, Roberto Gualtieri, Tobia Zevi.
But even after the primary, for the Capitol challenge the center-left field will remain crowded as Carlo Calenda and Virginia Raggi also run against the Michetti-Matone center-right ticket, the M5s mayor remained in the saddle to try an encore despite the pressures to leave in the name of the national alliance Pd-M5s.
In Bologna the center-right is still without a candidate and the outcome of the primary will be decisive
: if Lepore wins, M5s has already announced that it will support him from the first round while it will field its own candidate if Conti wins, which seems to please the moderates of the center.
"For the old guard of the Democratic Party, Bologna is the Bastille and Conti knows how to make a revolution ...", confides the president of Iv Ettore Rosato, however confident in a good result of the young mayor of the Bolognese belt. To make people understand the level of the challenge, with blows of jabs and poisons,
the descent into the field of the noble father Romano Prodi, supporter of Lepore
and ended up in the sights of Conti for a joke about the fact that in the primary "blood flows".
But in addition to the result, for the Pd of Enrico Letta, who tries to relaunch the gazebos after years of progressive decline and doubts also of the managers, the data of possible participation will be fundamental both in the online mode, through pre-registration, and with the presence at the gazebos (190 in Rome, 43 in Bologna). In Turin last Sunday 11 thousand voted, a very low figure that Letta however acquitted as "normal" in times of Covid.
The data of the pre-registered, almost 3 thousand, do not bode well in the capital while in the Emilian capital 5 thousand, including legal and sixteen-year-old immigrants, have already asked to vote online. For this reason, slowly, the leaders have lowered the voters bar: the Roman leaders of the dem are ready to say "satisfied" if they will be 40 thousand, well below the already modest figure of the 43 thousand who went to the gazebos in 2016 when militants and citizens chose Roberto Giachetti to challenge Virginia Raggi. The Bolognese are more confident about the figures, aiming at 18-20 thousand supporters in the vote. Figures far from the glories of the queues at the gazebos, but in the center-left, however, considered an important step for unity against the center-right.
