If the Sardinian centre-left has yet to reach an agreement with Renato Soru useful for guaranteeing the compactness of a multi-faceted and variously structured coalition, the island centre-right, for its part, after the initial closure of the Brothers of Italy towards the re-nomination tout court of the President outgoing, seems to have rediscovered the common purpose despite not having yet made known the name of the chosen leading candidate. And, to be honest, the choice (already crystallized within the so-called broad center-left field in the person of Alessandra Todde as an expression of the 5 Star Movement), both in one and the other situation, is certainly not a matter recently considered the objective pursuing: the government, for the next five years, of the entire regional perimeter.

There are two elements with the greatest social impact: to begin with, the representative position of the chosen one; and then, continuing, but no less importantly, the turnout, or, to put it another way, the democratic participation of potential Sardinian voters, which, undeniably, with good likelihood, seems to have drastically reduced over the last decade. Therefore, it would be illusory for both contending coalitions to consider the emerging data, directly linked to the representative capacity of the candidate and/or the leading candidate and the approval rating capable of arousing, to be of little relevance. Even more so when, in terms of the programs to be pursued, it appears that both sides have not yet reached a certain definitive point. In short, what could well be considered a real participatory crisis, and which had already become evident in the recent past, has amplified over the next few years, becoming, in the regional perimeter of reference, the only real tip of the balance in the most broad context of electoral competition.

In essence, and all things considered, the center-right and the center-left are opposed, in equal measure and equidistance, by the so-called "party of abstention". It could be observed that the circumstance can well characterize Italian politics as a whole, both of a regional and national nature, and, rather, expresses and reflects a crisis that is difficult to overcome given and considered also the critical economic-social data that appear in all their evidence in Sardinia such as, for example, in general terms, by way of example but not limited to, those attributable to the increase in youth unemployment, and/or to the difficulties of the island's tourism sector, also due to the problems related to the “expensive ferries” and the “expensive flights”. And again, the purely political fact represented by the participation in the electoral competition of all party movements should not be overlooked at any time, including those with lower approval percentages which, all things considered, and in percentage terms, can well make the difference by shifting the the balance tips towards one or the other of the two majority coalitions.

In this sense, the appeal for unity made by Elly Schlein to Renato Soru has all its raison d'être, given that the sympathizers and supporters of the former governor, in the event of failure to join their leader's centre-left coalition, they could constitute somewhat "missing" votes in the competition against a strong centre-right. Putting it differently, the greater the number of presidential candidates and/or lists in the field, the higher the risk of vote dispersion, with every conceivable consequence in terms of the expression of preference and democratic participation. If we were then to consider the alternation data, we should probably conclude that once the centre-right phase is over, it should be the centre-left's moment again, but the circumstance may not be so obvious considering the moonlights of recent times.

Well, considering this, it would be extremely illusory to consider the disenchantment of the Sardinian people towards a national government that seems to pay little attention to the island context and its long-standing problems to be of little relevance. Lastly, the contents of the Budget Law could also have an impact on the dynamics of the next electoral clash which, given the limited funding for the insularity fund, seems to have provided substantial economic support for the construction of the Bridge over the Strait of Messina. Saying it otherwise, and if we consider it carefully, both in the centre-right and in the centre-left, it would be illusory to think of being able to reach the next electoral appointment in the absence, in the context of the programs drawn up, of any reference to the so-called "Sardinian question" and the initiatives to resolve it. Given and considering that the trend of abstention seems to remain a constant fact, barring any error and any reversal of trend which is still possible, what will probably make the real difference will be the ability of the various political forces to smooth out the lack of homogeneity present at different levels in order to achieve a degree of competitiveness such as to guarantee at least an appreciable level of compactness that can inspire potential voters.

The political reading of the Sardinian electoral competition seems to be justified, if not completely, also by the interest it underlies in evaluating the level of consensus of the Sardinian people towards the national government, in the sense that a possible overwhelming victory of the centre-left , in a complex area such as the Sardinian one, could constitute an alarming warning bell for Rome and its current central government. As soon as it is possible to know the name of the centre-right candidate, it will be possible to make a preliminary comparison, albeit hypothetical, also in terms of representativeness, but for the moment it seems that we are in a completely prodromal phase. The time doesn't seem ripe yet.

Giuseppina Di Salvatore

(Lawyer – Nuoro)

© Riproduzione riservata