In the highly anticipated 2020 regional election in Calabria, the populist, extreme-right to moderate-right alliance candidate Jole Santelli (*1969) was elected president. Jole Santelli is a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI).
In the January 26, 2020 regional election in Calabria, the center-right coalition was composed of FI, the populist, xenophobe, right-wing party Lega of Matteo Salvini, the extreme-right Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia, FdI) of Giorgia Meloni as well as some other, small parties.
With all votes counted and a voter turnout of 44.3%, according to Italy’s Ministry of the Interior, the center-right parties won a combined total of 55.29% of the vote and 19 seats in the regional parliament of Calabria with a total of 29 members. In comparison with 2014, this was a 23% swing in favor of the center-right.
The other 10 seats in the Calabrian regional election were won by the center-left alliance composed of the Democratic Party (PD) and the smaller parties I Stay in Calabria and the Progressive Democrats. With Filippo Calippo (PD) as their candidate for president, the center-left won only 30.14% of the vote, a staggering -31.3%. In short, the center-left was cut in half!
Italy is currently governmet by an alliance formed by the social-democratic PD and the populist, center-left Five-Star-Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle, M5S). In Calabria, the populist M5S chose to present its own presidential candidate (Aiello Francesco) and regional parliament list. They only managed to win 7.35% of the vote and no seat in the regional parliament. In comparison, in the May 26, 2019 European Parliament election, M5S managed to win 17.06% of the vote and 14 out of 73 Italian seats in the EU Parliament, which represented already -3 seats in comparison with the 2014 EU Parliament election.
According to all current polls, if elections were held today, the shady, but popular Matteo Salvini would become Italy’s next prime minister. If the social-democratic PD and the populist M5S do not concentrate on a few national projects, which impact most voters, and manage to deliver, they will face a disaster in the next national election.
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The photo on top shows Jole Santelli (*1969), the winning center-right coalition candidate, a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Photo copyright: Camera dei Deputati. Wikipedia: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Article added on January 27, 2020 at 20:31 Italian time.
