A-Infos (en) Italy, IFA, UCADI #200 - The Government Faces a Test in the Regional Elections (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A round of regional elections begins on September 28th, involving seven 
regions over the course of several months: Puglia, Calabria, Campania, 
Marche, Tuscany, Veneto, and Valle d'Aosta. Although these are not 
general elections, the deadline is being seen as an opportunity to test 
the government's resilience. However, given what's at stake, the results 
of the vote are certainly misleading. Currently, it appears that four 
regions will receive a center-left majority, two will receive a 
center-right majority, and the seventh, Valle d'Aosta, presents 
uncertainties due to the presence of ethnic and linguistic political groups.
In the regions currently governed by left-wing governments, government 
politicians present themselves as representatives of established lobbies 
working to defend well-defined and consolidated interests, rigorously 
represented within the lists and proposed candidates. Nothing is 
expected to change, and the opposition is relegated to a role of mere 
witness, despite enjoying the support of the central government, which 
is barely able to grant favors in the region and thus gain greater 
consensus. The presidency of the Marche Region, contested between 
Meloni's proconsul Francesco Acquaroli and former Renzi supporter Matteo 
Ricci, a skilled and astute technocrat, appears contestable. The 
progressive decline of the Marche regional economy, largely due to the 
international economic climate, and the disastrous state of the regional 
health service, directly attributable to the current governor, are 
issues that should spur an electoral victory for the "left" and lead to 
a change of leadership in regional governance that would revert to 
previous, consolidated political balances and interests.
Calabria also appears to have become contestable, with President Roberto 
Occhiuto (FI) resigning, simultaneously calling new elections. In this 
way, he intends to respond to the corruption investigations he is the 
subject of by submitting himself to the voters' decision. The left is 
countering his candidacy with that of former INPS President Giuseppe 
Tridico, whose program is currently unknown in a region that currently 
plays a key role because investments related to the devastating 
construction of the fateful bridge over the Strait of Messina are about 
to pour into its territory. This is all while, according to ISTAT data, 
Calabria's resident population has been steadily and rapidly decreasing 
since 2014. "It is no longer simply a 'loss of young people' offset by 
births, but a negative natural balance, with more deaths than births. 
Previously, the high birth rate mitigated the effects of emigration; 
after 2014, the decline in births and aging have made depopulation a 
structural and visible phenomenon year after year."
(S. Barresi, 
https://www.lanuovacalabria.it/spopolamento-e-raccettazione-la-lenta-scomparsa-della-calabria). 
Investment policies must be developed that enable local development, 
building a supply chain that capitalizes on local agricultural 
production capabilities, markets its products, and creates opportunities 
for living and working. The region's repopulation problem can be 
addressed by promoting its welcoming role, well exemplified by the Riace 
model, which has led to the establishment of numerous artisan businesses 
in the region and the resettlement and integration of migrant populations.

But despite every effort, the left is unable to propose a credible and 
alternative candidate for Veneto, a region it is considering the legacy 
of Governor Zaia, who, although outgoing and ineligible, continues to 
shape its political life as the conduit of consolidated regional interests.

The country's political governance

The likely positive outcome of the regional elections must not and 
cannot suggest that the opposition has developed the capacity to govern 
and is capable of challenging the political majority governing the 
country. It is completely devoid of a government program, slogans, 
issues around which to mobilize the electorate, economic programs, and 
proposals to overcome the profound inequalities that are carving 
unbridgeable chasms in society.
What about its foreign policy positions? The opposition stands out for 
its feeble voice in condemning the Palestinian genocide and its 
inability to force the government to distance itself from the criminal 
positions of the Jewish entity, allowing itself to be trapped by facile 
and self-righteous accusations of anti-Semitism, which in reality 
conceal a consonance with the policies of the State of Israel, which is 
believed to be doing the dirty work on behalf of the new Nazis. But more 
serious, and above all fraught with consequences, is the left's stance 
on the war in Ukraine: persisting in supporting the Kiev government, 
sacrificing the interests of the European peoples and draining the 
financial resources and welfare of European states to finance a losing 
and futile war effort. Rather than defending Ukrainian national 
independence, it fights to assert a crude and sordid, racist and 
xenophobic nationalism that threatens to pollute the regions of Europe 
and compromise the future of the European peoples.

The support of left-wing parties for the war has always brought defeat 
and, above all, misunderstanding on the part of their voters, who know 
full well that in wars, it is the proletariat, the children of the 
people, who die.

The Editorial Staff

https://www.ucadi.org/2025/09/04/il-governo-alla-prova-delle-regionali/
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