Renew Europe affiliates make big gains in Italian regional elections

5 months ago 20

The regional elections in Basilicata, which saw the expected victory of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party, surprised the centrist Italia Viva and Azione parties, which together won more than 14% of the vote.

Meloni and her right-wing allies have secured control of the Basilicata region, scoring a major victory over their centre-left opponents, election results showed on Monday.

The votes also indicate a possible shift in dynamics after the European elections, notably among the parties in the current coalition, particularly with Forza Italia (13%) overtaking Lega (7.8%).

As predicted, the main opposition parties, the Democratic Party (13.9%) and the 5-Star Movement (7.7%), suffered defeat. After a brief period of unity that led to their success in the regional elections in Sardinia in February, internal conflicts have resurfaced in recent weeks.

The real surprise, however, comes from the two smaller parties that are both part of the Renew Europe group at the EU level, which proved crucial to the victory of the centre-right candidate.

Although former prime minister Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva did not field any candidates, it backed a list that won 7% of the vote, while Carlo Calenda’s Azione secured 7.5%.

For the 2022 general election, Italia Viva and Azione joined forces under a new centrist banner called the Third Pole, which won 8% of the vote. They officially split last October and will run separately in the upcoming European elections, although both remain under the Renew Europe group.

“The performance of Azione and the list close to Italia Viva was not so surprising because, in the general election, the Third Pole had a significant result already,” political analyst and political trends expert Lorenzo Pregliasco told Euractiv Italy in an interview.

According to him, their results in Basilicata should only be interpreted from a territorial perspective, not from a national one.

He still believes there will be “anticipation regarding the performance of the two lists”, especially given their proximity to the 4% threshold in the polls.

However, according to Pregliasco, only a united front can really compete with the centre-right led by Meloni and the Democratic Party.

“If there had been a stronger, more cohesive unified entity, it would have had a lot of space, as the Schlein leadership leans more to the left than its predecessors, such as Renzi or Letta. It leaves some room to its right, thus accommodating the centre, the reformist centre, liberal, and liberal-democratic”.

(Alessia Peretti | Euractiv.it)