Rome, 16 apr (Velino) - The long wave of the political victory of Silvio Berlusconi’s Popolo delle Libertà and Umberto Bossi’s Lega Nord is having devastating effects on local administrations: centre right candidates took by storm two very important regions, Sicily with over 65 per cent of the popular vote for the alliance PDL, Lega and MPA (Popular movement for autonomy), conceding a mere 30 per cent to former Ulivo whip in the Senate Anna Finocchiaro, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia where Renzo Tondo for the same centre right alliance ousted leftist coffee tycoon Riccardo Illy (46.3 per cent) after ten years, winning at the first ballot with 53.7 per cent. But the centre left drama was more evident and extremely eloquent in Rome: outgoing Vice Premier Francesco Rutelli did not manage to get the Mayor chair with the first ballot, stopping at 45 per cent, against centre right Gianni Alemanno (over 40 per cent), whereas Walter Veltroni, the Partito Democratico leader defeated in the political elections, had conquered the Capital with over 60 per cent of the votes in the previous elections. So, Mr Rutelli will need a second ballot, on April 27-28, to try and keep Rome to the centre left, and analysts are not ever so sure that he can do that easily, despite the comfortable five per cent lead. That’s because in the second round only the two top candidates will play it off and the subtle game of securing the votes of the supporters of candidates already eliminated might provide the trick. Just to make an example, the votes poured on Luciano Ciocchetti for UDC, over three per cent, and on extreme right Francesco Storace, almost 3.5 per cent, and Mario Baccini (Rosa Bianca, around one per cent) should naturally, if not obviously, converge on Mr Alemanno and give him the opportunity of a dramatic challenge to the last vote.

Quite a different scenario from the quasi plebiscite of the last local elections and despite the support of the Sinistra Arcobaleno radical left which was evidently punished by the electorate at local level as well, after the astonishing blow suffered at national level where they will not seat in Parliament anymore. Same situation for the Rome province administration, since heavy favourite Nicola Zingaretti stopped at 47 per cent and will have to wait for a second ballot in a fortnight. But his chances look better since his main rival Alfredo Antoniozzi got only 37 per cent. The long wave effect was felt in important local administrations too, with a big change in the northern industrial city of Brescia, traditionally a stronghold for the extreme left because of the large blue collars component. Lega Nord apparently benefited from the disappointment of the working class at local level as well and consequently the PDL-Lega Nord candidate Adriano Paroli got the town-hall at his very first attempt with over 51 per cent of the vote. Another surprising result came from Massa Carrara province, in the heart of Red Tuscany, an historical Communist stronghold, where Osvaldo Angeli didn’t get more than 41.5 per cent and was forced by the unexpected performance of Sandro Bondi, a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi, who got an outstanding 37.2 per cent. And in the battle for other important town-halls, like Pisa and Massa Carrara, the centre left candidates have been forced to go to the second ballot, in sharp contrast with previous large victories.

All these quite homogeneous local election results are being read in endless talk shows on TV and long political analysis in newspapers as the obvious consequence of the centre left defeat and the great radical left disaster. There is little fantasy in describing the latter, since historical is the more repeated adjective by anybody, anywhere, anytime. The radical left is trying hard to find an explanation: but reading at length their own newspapers we discovered that the prevailing theory is that they were punished for not being hard enough on their allies in the Romano Prodi coalition. Well maybe history has been very wise this time.