Ten weeks after the vote, the electoral campaign for the regions of Lombardy is in full swing. Subject of the dispute, the management of the Covid emergency in the first weeks of the pandemic, in February 2020. The online edition of «Domani», in fact, published an email written by the governor on February 28 in which the government was asked to keep soft measures to contain the virus, in particular the confirmation of the “yellow zone”, instead of the “red”, in the Bergamo area, which would soon become the “epicenter” of the spread of Covid.
The email, which is part of the proceedings of the investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bergamo into the management of the pandemic for which the investigation is pending, prompted the immediate stance of the center-left candidate Pierfrancesco Majorino. “Fontana culpably gambled with the lives of the Lombards – said the MEP from the Democratic Party – and proved to be clearly inadequate in managing the emergency, going so far as to minimize a situation that was already out of control”.
Words to which Fontana promptly replied: «It sounds a little strange that at that time there were mayors and there was the secretary of the party to which Majorino belongs, who invited people to drink aperitifs and go to dinner, so as not to be afraid to carry on with life as if nothing had happened. Even the commissioner of the Lombard League Fabrizio Cecchetti responded to Majorino: “His political misery speaks for itself: he comes to speculate on deaths from the pandemic for his rude election campaign,” writes Cecchetti on social networks. «Let’s remind Majorino – he continued – that only the Government has the power to establish a red zone, holding control of the police forces necessary to seal its territorial borders, a power that the Region does not have. And Conte and Five Stars were in government with their Pd».
Controversy erupted the same day that a wholly reassuring poll for Fontana was released. According to a Winpoll poll conducted between November 30 and December 1, the center-right candidate would have just over 42%. Letizia Moratti’s performance is notable: the civic candidate, supported by her coalition, would in fact exceed 27%, highlighting Pierfrancesco Majorino, elected by the dem, by almost 7 percentage points (20.9%) according to the poll. The M5S, currently without a candidate and without alliances, would sit at 6.3. If Grillini voters decide to support Majorino, only 39% of those who voted for the pentastellati in politics would choose the dem candidate, 24% would vote for Moratti and 28% would still not know who to choose.
On the other hand, the participation of the former pentastellata in relation to Fontana (5%) is residual. Still analyzing the voting flows, it is verified that 29% of the dem voters would vote for Letizia Moratti in the regional elections, while only 44% of the forced voters and 59% of the voters of the Brothers of Italy would converge for Fontana. Precisely in these two parties the share of undecided voters is very high (32% and 37%) and according to the survey “this is where the challenge will be played”.
At the moment, therefore, Fontana would have fifteen points of advantage over his more accredited rival. A substantial margin, even if the votes collected by the outgoing governor are, in any case, lower than those obtained in the first election, in 2018, when he obtained 49.8%, and the percentage achieved by the center-right in the last Policies, when in Lombardy the coalition led by Giorgia Meloni reached 50.6%. A fall due, most likely, to the losing votes of Moratti, whose candidacy, however, would seem to harm the center-left much more.
On this front, conversations continue to seek convergence with the 5 Star Movement. The day before yesterday Majorino, in an interview with the Huffington Post, confirmed that “there will be a meeting with the 5 Stars next week. I don’t persecute them, but I don’t demonize them either. We will talk about contents and the result of the comparison is not obvious». +Europe’s veto also hampered the deal, which took the possibility of finding itself in a coalition with the grillini off the table. Giuseppe Conte himself, after an initial opening of credit to the PD candidate, slowed down. It must be said that in Lombardy the Movement does not have a decisive electorate for the purposes of the result. But the revival of the “wide field” aborted before the Policies would also have strategic significance at the national level.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
