Liguria, the right chooses Bucci. Renzi’s reply: “We won’t support him”

The coalition peace is well worth a gamble, even more so a month and a half before the first vote of the difficult autumn that awaits the government forces. This explains, between Rome and Liguria, the calculation that in the last 48 hours has led the national leaders of the center-right to first ask and then launch the candidacy of the mayor of Genoa Marco Bucci for the next regional elections. A risk-everything episode, conceived despite the no already received in the summer by Matteo Salvini and brought home by Giorgia Meloni in the midst of the stalemate over the choice of the presidential candidate, bogged down for days on the only two names on the table, those of Edoardo Rixi and the deputy Ilaria Cable, which solves at least one problem at the national level, but leaves more than one doubt on the local terrain. Allowing the showdown between FdI and Lega on future choices to be postponed for a few months, the candidacy in Veneto first, but certifying all the risks involved.

If it is true that the surprise investiture of the mayor remains a coup, and relaunches the possibilities of the center-right shaken by the investigation into the system of former governor Giovanni Toti, the episode also brings with it many unknowns. From the same health conditions of the mayor, who has been in full therapy for months for the treatment of a tumor (“It won’t be a walk in the park, but the doctors told me it can be done”, he clarified on the topic yesterday) to the reflections on the Municipality, where a his election would lead to the fall of the junta and (another) early vote. From the countless roles with difficult compatibility with a commitment in the Region (among these, the appointment of commissioner of the new port dam project) to full organicity in the Toto era, the nine years of regional government ended up under investigation and ended with the fall of former president Toti. Who certified the handover on social media (“Now it’s your turn”), and despite the promises of continuity from the leaders of the front, Salvini in the lead, seems increasingly far from being able to give his cards in the coalition of his (former) majority .

“I’m running because at this point I couldn’t back down, especially after the prime minister’s request: I can’t allow the region to end up in the hands of the no-everything lords”, Bucci explained yesterday, the change of heart that led him to revise what he said no later than ten days ago, when he declared that he could not run so as not to “fool the voters”. What made him change his mind, in addition to Meloni’s long phone call (“She took the political decision, she left the personal one to me”), was the lack of alternatives, as admitted by the right.

If the Bucci card boosts the centre-right’s ratings, especially in Genoa, the region’s main pool of votes where Bucci’s consensus has been very high since the reconstruction following the collapse of the Morandi bridge, it is also true that “that of desperation remains”, it stings from the left, where the move did not trigger the fibrillations that were expected. “Bucci was a good mayor, but this time we will not support him”, Matteo Renzi clarified via social media, confirming Iv’s turn. «We in Genoa were already in opposition», recalls Carlo Calenda. “They all ran away, and were forced to look for Bucci,” the camp’s candidate, Andrea Orlando, would later confess to his followers. They didn’t want to do Toti an injustice, and it is also clear from how all the national leaders of the center-right have underlined the theme of continuity, as is noted by the former dem minister’s entourage. A “good signal”, it is defined: it means that “we are playing the game with the advantage”.