Nationalist leaders Matteo Salvini and
Giorgia Meloni on Friday made up with a hug in Rome on the last
day of campaigning for elections in the capital and many other
big Italian cities, after the Brothers of Italy (FdI) leader
stood up the League leader at a stump event in Milan the
previous day.
"There is political affection, we are destined to govern
together", said Salvini at the joint event in favour of
centre-right candidate Enrico Michetti.
Michetti is favoured by opinion polls to come first due to a
split in the centre-left vote, but not gain an overall majority,
with former economy minister Roberto Gualtieri of the
Democratic Party (PD) tipped to take over from
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) Mayor Virginia Raggi
who has been hit by a glut of pictures and videos of wild boar
nosing through rubbish in the streets of Rome.
The PD also fancies its changes in a long-time former fief,
Bologna, and in Naples, while the centre right alliance, also
featuring ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI)
party, touted to win in Milan and Turin, where an M5S mayor has
been hit by a conviction for negligence in a soccer match
viewing stampede that killed two people.
As well as the big cities, hundreds of smaller ones are going to
the polls on Sunday and Monday.
There will also be a regional vote in Calabria, where the
election campaign has been shaken up by a 13-year conviction for
a local leftwing mayor who helped migrants revitalise his small
town but who was found guilty of abuse of office and illictly
pocketing EU and government funds.
The League's Salvini, meanwhile, has pointed the finger at
alleged 'clockwork justice' over a drugs probe into his former
spin doctor and creator of his once-formidable 'Beast' social
media engine, which helped propel the League to become Italy's
biggest party before recently falling behind Meloni's FdI.
The elections are also being seen as a litmus test for Premier
Mario Draghi's government, which is backed by all major parties
except FdI, whose recent success has been largely based on its
position as sole critic of the ex-European central banker's
adminstration.
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