A test for the parties in view of the future political elections.
And for the coalitions which, in many cases, are experimenting with new formulas of alliances, in no particular order.
Nine million Italians are called to the polls to renew their administrations in a thousand municipalities and to vote in referendums on justice.
A test, this, at risk of quorum but which does not exempt all parties from measuring also the turnout for the administrative vote.
All the more so because the eve of the vote, which should be marked by an iron electoral silence, turns into a day of accusations and threatened complaints.
The leaders of the political forces yesterday closed their electoral tours but Matteo Salvini takes advantage of a visit to the Salone del Mobile to return to the attack by the government, parties and Europe.
And while the countdown is being made for the opening of the polls of a vote already marred by the announcement of a plethora of 18 "unpresentable" candidates, according to the verdict of the Anti-Mafia Commission, and by the arrest of two candidates for the Municipality of Palermo - one from Fi and one from FdI - the case of the ticket paid by the Russian embassy for the trip, then skipped, Di Salvini to Moscow also breaks out.
An earthquake that adds to the attacks by the leader of Via Bellerio on the ECB again accused of putting Italy "under attack", the government ("more than 9 billion, you can quickly find the money to renew the petrol and diesel discount at least for the entire 'estate ") and also to the Pd.
With Senator Andrea Ostellari who lashes out against Enrico Letta, accused of having "had very close relations, having taken on positions in some companies" with China.
Salvini also roughly replies to his ally Giorgia Meloni, who had asked him to sign an "anti-mess pact".
"I don't need to sign. I have no intention of governing with the Democratic Party after this emergency phase", he assures us.
After the embrace between Salvini and Meloni on stage in Verona, this electoral challenge is in fact the litmus test to measure the balance of power between Lega and Fdi and with Fi.
The center-right starts from an advantageous position in tomorrow's consultation with 18 of the 26 largest cities going to vote governed by their coalition.
But in the competition, the case of Verona is noteworthy, where Forza Italia supports Tosi, an alternative candidate to Sboarina supported by Lega and Fdi, thus risking opening the door to the ballot for the candidate of the progressive front.
The electoral round in Palermo, on the other hand, is very indicative for the center-left coalition: in the Sicilian capital, the holding of the alliance between the Pd and M5s is being tested, also in view of the next regional ones, where Letta and Conte have set up the primary municipalities.
But in the variable geometries of this round a case is also that of Parma, governed for two terms by the former M5s mayor, Pizzarotti: there the Democratic Party supports Guerra with the left and with Italia Viva (but not Action by Calenda) and without the M5s who he does not present his own list.
The center-right instead goes to vote with Lega and Forza Italia in support of Vignali on the one hand and with FdI supporting Bocchi on the other.
If it is essential for the center-right to defend the "fort" of the municipalities they govern,
for the center-left the challenge is to regain lost ground by focusing as much as possible on the wide field.
This is the bet Enrico Letta is playing when he exorcises the debacle of 2017: "at the time the Democratic Party made a choice that I did not agree with, which was a choice of self-sufficiency, of isolation. Today - he always repeats - we are making a choice important of enlargement ".
In the hope that Giuseppe Conte's M5s, pivot of this "enlargement" supported by the secretary of the Democratic Party, will hold up to the next, difficult, appointments that await him on the legal front.
