A setback for Salvini or a comeback for the left in Italy?

Elections in Emilia-Romagna

Rome [ENA] The 2020 regional election took place in Emilia-Romagna and in Calabria, Italy, on 26 January 2020. The result was the victory of the centre-left coalition and the confirmation of Stefano Bonaccini as President of Emilia-Romagna, with more than 51% of votes, nearly doubling the amount of votes received in 2014.So the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) held Emilia-Romagna making a surprise to rightwing strongman

Matteo Salvini and providing some relief for the PD-Five Star (M5S) government in Rome. The 2020 regional election whose result was the victory of the centre-left coalition were counterbalanced by the victory of the right-wing coalition in Calabria. Salvini's whose nationalist league party had become the top party in the leftwing fief in last year's European elections, had vowed to "evict" Premier Giuseppe Conte's government in the case of a victory in Emilia-Romagna.

On 26 January, the PD's incumbent Governor Stefano Bonaccini got 51.6% of the vote to the 43.7% of his League challenger Lucia Borgonzoni. The M5S candidate, Simone Benini, saw his vote collapse to 3.5% compared to the 33% score for the anti-establishment group in national elections two years ago. PD leader Nicola Zingaretti acclaimed the result after the PD became top party again, saying Italy was returning to a "bipolar" left-right system after years of tripolar politics with the M5S somewhere along the spectrum, with the PD picking up many disaffected M5S voters. The official election campaign was opened on 14 November by the League, which organized a rally at the PalaDozza, the sport arena of Bologna.

On that occasion Matteo Salvini presented the centre-right candidate Lucia Borgonzoni. At the same time, a flash mob named "6000 Sardines against Salvini" was organized in Piazza Maggiore, to peacefully protest against Salvini's campaign in Emilia-Romagna. On the following day, the Nicola Zingaretti's Democratic Party held a three-day convention in Bologna, known as Tutta un'altra storia ("A whole different story"). "Salvini has lost and the government is stronger," Zingaretti declared adding "This stronger government should now relaunch its action," mentioning an upcoming state-of-government 'verification' aimed at drawing up a new agenda, optimistically until the end of the parliamentary term in 2023.

Salvini was not too disappointed despite coming up short after months of massive campaigning in the central-northern region. "For the first time in 70 years we made a game of it," Salvini said and continued "We're preparing ourselves for five years of passionate opposition". "I'd do everything over again, even the doorbell," he said, referring to a controversial call on a Bologna Tunisian family asking if a drug pusher, the son, lived there. (Bonaccini said Monday "let him ring doorbells at his own house".)

Salvini also defended the decision to end the campaign in Bibbiano, where a foster scandal hit the PD, despite accusations of exploiting kids for electoral reasons. The vote penalized the M5S, whose leader, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, resigned amid defections, backstabbing and a string of poor results last week leaving as caretaker of the Movement Vito Crimi . Commentators said the PD, so far the junior partner in the alliance, was now likely to put its foot down on policies that have split the alliance, such as a reform of the statute of limitations. Crimi tried to show optimism. "We won't give in, we are united," he said. "Let the government go ahead, we'll work flat out", ahead of an 'estates-general'

reckoning and brainstorming session on March 13-15. Observers said much of the credit for the PD victory in and around Bologna should go to the new grassroots leftwing 'Sardines' movement, which sprang up and packed squares in Emilia-Romagna in November in opposition to Salvini's nationalist populist policies, and challenged him directly in the regional elections. Bonaccini told a press conference that he had phoned Sardines leader Mattia Santori for the first time Monday and thanked him for their "extraordinary mobilisation".

The four Bolognese founders of the Sardines, including Santori, issued a statement Monday saying "now it's up to us, the hardest part if starting". They declared: "We will be present and ready for battle where they are going to vote, especially if the (populist) style which (the League) has shown in Emilia-Romagna and Calabria is re-presented in Puglia, Campania, Marche, Tuscany, Liguria, and Val d'Aosta". Zingaretti told a press conference: the Sardines were a healthy shock, and they convinced many people to turn out and vote". Bonaccini also told the press conference: "Salvini challenged me and he lost".

Bonaccini also said the M5S had "squandered" a chance to team up with the centre left, which they decided not to do after the experiment failed in Umbria last year. Meanwhile in Sunday's other regional elections in Calabria, the centre-right's Jole Santelli, from Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, triumphed by 55% to 30% over the PD's Filippo Calippo. Here, too, the M5S vote collapsed and its candidate, Francesco Aiello, got just 7%, failing to reach the 8% threshold to get onto the regional council. Santelli became the first woman governor of Calabria, and in southern Italy as a whole.