While Friuli Venezia prepares for the Giulia and Molise rows, Lazio and Lombardy are being renewed by voting on Sunday, February 12 and Monday, February 13. There will be no voting. The regional elections in Lazio and Lombardy will be mini-politics in all respects. Not only because of the number of those involved (twelve million Italians), but also because the future of both the centre-left and centre-right is at stake. While the 5 Star Movement and the Brothers of Italy rub their hands, the Democratic Party, Forza Italia and Lega fear the repercussions of possible defeats.

But let’s start with the less political element: the number of voters. Lazio and Lombardy alone make up almost a quarter of the country. Lombardi and Lazio will be able to elect not only their regional presidents, but also their party and individual councillor, who will be awarded a seat in the regional council. In this sense, the election of the Italians will be essential to test the voters’ satisfaction with the individual parties and to understand which party will be the most representative of the left and the right. The voting method will also make this clear.

How to vote in regional elections?

There will be rectangles on the ballot with the name and surname of the person nominated for the presidency. The symbols of all political lists that support the candidate for governor will be shown on the left. In this case, the electorate will have several options: to vote for the Regional Presidency candidate or to vote for the Regional Presidency candidate without any votes attributed to the list or the relevant provincial lists. and for one of the lists it depends on. Separate voting is also envisaged, meaning that voters will be able to choose a candidate for the Regional Presidency, but also a list that is not affiliated with the elected president. Finally, you can vote for a list.

Gender alternation is foreseen in multi-name lists, and it is possible to specify at most two preferences, to choose between a candidate and a candidate on the same list, and to write surnames on the ballot.

Brothers of Italy prepare to cannibalize the right

The polls speak for themselves. For weeks the centre-right has been winning in Lombardy, in Lazio as well. The Brothers of Italy are also the first party in the northern region where Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini were born physically and politically. Thus, as of February 12, a fault line may open on the centre-right, where Lega and Forza Italia are at risk of collapse.

Silvio Berlusconi also expressed all his concerns to his closest collaborators and said that there was a risk of going to the far right in this way, losing more voters, and that Letizia Moratti would have voted if it were up to her. in Lombardy. Berlusconi has nothing against the Lombard candidate Attilio Fontana, but he understands that Fratelli d’Italia has taken it all and seems to be convincing more and more as we go on. Even after the first hundred days of government, Fdi has not lost consensus.

With the capture of Lazio and Lombardy, Giorgia Meloni would certainly benefit from all the work done in the last years of opposition. He would begin to lay the law not only in future elections, easily imposing his own candidates, but also within the government, where the balance of power was always against the Azzurri and the Northern League.

Berlusconi is increasingly obsessed with the vertical collapse of the Forza Italia consensus. Matteo Salvini fears that he doesn’t know how to reverse course, which could lead him to a head-on collision with the inner Nordist front.

The big names of the Democratic Party are in Lombardy and Conte is waiting

Lazio and Lombardy will also be a crossroads for the fate of the Democratic Party and the centre-left in general. The fact that all the big names in the Democratic Party flew to Milan to close the election campaign says a lot. They concentrated in the Nazzareno party where they thought they had the least difference compared to Lazio, who gave up the defeat.

Perhaps because of the bomb dropped by Senator Matteo Renzi: “The choice of the 5 Star Movement to break the alliance with Zingaretti in Lazio is to win the truth. Education with the Democratic Party even in Lombardy, a 5 star strike thanks to the Democratic Party”. Of course, this is the opinion of the leader of Italia Viva. It is said, however, that bad thinking puts a person in sin, but takes it away as well. And Renzi’s reasoning is not to be dismissed.

At a historic moment when the left voters are marching towards Giuseppe Conte, the Democratic Party is holding a convention and unable to express a political direction and agenda, the M5s have every interest in killing the Democrats. He could easily do with a defeated Pd in ​​Lombardy and could do even more if he was defeated in Lazio, where he would go alone.