The experiment of the Italian left has worked on the island of Sardinia and for the first time in many months, progressive parties have a reason to smile. During the early hours of this Tuesday, a long and exhausting scrutiny ended, resulting in the winner of the candidate presented by the coalition formed by the social democrats of the Democratic Party (PD) and the 5 Star Movement (M5S, for its acronym in Italian). It is the first time that an alliance of both parties has been successful in an election, and it has done so against a candidate that the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, had imposed on the right-wing coalition under some controversy.
The result is very tight. Barely three tenths in favor of the M5S policy Alessandra Todde, the woman at the head of the new progressive artifact. Only about 3,000 votes away from the right-wing candidate, Paolo Truzzu. But the setback is hard for the leader of the Brothers of Italy, who sees how she loses electoral magnetism for the first time in the last year and a half. An especially painful defeat due to how Meloni has managed the entire process and because it is one of the last test beds for the European elections. Truzzu is a personal bet for Meloni, despite the fact that Salvini preferred to run with Christian Solinas, the outgoing president, who has had to give up due to a judicial investigation.
Elly Schlein, the leader of the PD, did not want to miss it and flew to Sardinia last night accompanied by Giuseppe Conte, leader of the M5S. “The wind changes,” she announced as soon as she arrived. Todde, at two in the morning, was already clear: “I will be the first female president of the region: a historic moment for Sardinia. “I am happy and very proud.” Conte, a fundamental piece of this victory, also pointed out the grandiloquent adjectives: “It is an unforgettable day. The Sardinians have opened an alternative.” The reality is precisely that: the invention has worked and can be used against the right-wing supporters in the elections. According to the current electoral law, parties that run in coalition have a great advantage. And that is an element that the left had not yet taken advantage of.
The victory has been possible thanks to the understanding between the M5S and the PD. An alliance that many now think could have managed to stop the advance of the extreme right if it had been established a year and a half ago, when the coalition led by Meloni swept the general elections in Italy. The changes since then have been significant. But, above all, the M5S, formerly an anti-system party with opaque management, has made a journey hand in hand with Conte towards center-left positions that have facilitated understanding with the PD. And Schlein celebrated. “One thing is certain: the alternative is there. As secretary, exactly one year after the primaries, she couldn’t have hoped for a better reason to celebrate. She shows that the direction taken is the right one and that being stubbornly united pays off. We will also be faced with other equally important challenges, because today we have shown that the right can be defeated,” she noted.
The data reveal another interesting phenomenon within the right-wing coalition. Salvini’s League continues its free fall and has already been surpassed by Forza Italia, which seems not to notice the death of its president and founder, Silvio Berlusconi. The League obtained a disappointing 3.8% of the vote and was almost doubled by the third partner in the government coalition, Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia, with 6.3%.
Frictions between the three parties will now come, although the right-wing candidate, Paolo Truzzu, tried on Monday to assume all the blame to avoid greater evils. Salvini has already threatened, in his own way, to open a crisis. The leader of the League wanted the candidate to be the current governor of Sardinia, Christian Solinas. But Meloni imposed a candidate from his party, causing something like a “I already warned you” from his partner. “Nothing changes in the Government. But we will have to study the results and the causes,” warned the League leader. The next elections in Abruzzo or Tuscany will mark the real depth of the open wound.
Meloni, joking with correspondents: “I haven’t had my best day and I can’t even drown my sorrow in alcohol”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not have the best day on Monday. She lost in Sardinia and she lost painfully, because the candidate she had imposed was devastated by the left. It was not a good day because there was friction in her administration, because her partner Matteo Salvini reminded her of her mistakes and because, on top of that, she had to go to the correspondents’ dinner. “It’s not my best day, and on top of that I’m doing Lent and I can’t even drown my sorrows in alcohol,” she said just at the beginning of her speech, immediately understanding that it was an event to use humor and irony. “You invited me to this dinner and when I had already accepted, you told me that Draghi resigned two days after stopping by here. So I will do everything possible to get away from this table as soon as possible.”
Meloni appeared dressed in white, with an elegant necklace and with irony and a Roman accent. She first celebrated the transfer of the correspondents’ headquarters in Rome to the Grazzioli Palace, Silvio Berlusconi’s old home in the capital. “I don’t know what she would say from beyond the grave if she knew that a band of communists, as he would say, had moved into his house.” Then, somewhat more seriously, she wanted to present a kinder and closer version of herself than the one she usually projects.
“Who I am? Well I’m someone who doesn’t love being here [como primera ministra] and yet that is why it can last. I am not an optimistic person, and that is why I believe that I am in a position to face certain challenges. Look, none of my dreams have come true. I wanted to be a singer, but I was out of tune. I wanted to be a player on the national volleyball team, but I’m a dwarf. And I wanted to meet Michael Jackson, but he died too soon,” he continued. “But look, thanks to him and his songs I learned English and that later helped me in international politics.”
Meloni surprised the audience of journalists who gathered at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Rome with his tone. “I have many of the seven capital vices, but I do not have the most devastating one for politicians, which is vanity. I’m not always angry, it’s a face that comes naturally to me when I’m focused. I love to laugh, and laugh at myself. I consider myself a good person, but we must not underestimate the evil of a good person forced to be bad,” he warned in a more recognizable tone. The prime minister ended her speech by promising that she will return to Italy the prestige lost for years and “the nation will be reliable again.”
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