Polls open tomorrow and Monday in Vibo Valentia, the only provincial capital called to vote in Calabria, for the run-off necessary for the election of the new mayor. The challenge is between the manager of the Calabria Region, Roberto Cosentinowho runs for the center-right, e Vincenzo Romeo – former first president of the Province of Vibo Valentia – who runs for the centre-left. In particular, Roberto Cosentino is supported by Forza Italia, Fratelli d’Italia, the “Indipendenza” movement and three civic lists, and obtained 38.4% of the votes in the first round, equal to 7,058 votes. A total of six lists supported him: “Let’s go further” with 1,344 votes equal to 7.41%; Forza Italia with 1739 votes, 9.59%; Forza Vibo with 1,528 votes, 8.43%; Fratelli d’Italia who obtained 1,499 votes equal to 8.27%; Independence with 506 votes equal to 2.79%; Single Vibo: 981 votes, 5.41%. Vincenzo Romeo in the first round instead obtained 31.9% of the votes equal to 5,863 votes. It is supported by the Democratic Party and the Five Star Movement, as well as by the Greens-Italian Left alliance. There are four lists supporting Romeo which obtained the following result in the first round: Democratic Party 1798 votes equal to 9.91%; Five Star Movement 871 votes, 4.80%; Progressives for Vibo 626 votes, 3.45%; Centro Studi Progetto Vibo 1,672 votes, 9.22%.
The balance in deciding the new mayor could turn out to be the orientation of the ‘third pole’, which has gathered around the centrist candidate Francesco Muzzupappa which stopped in the first round at 28.5%, equal to 5,299 votes. Marcella Murabito of Rifondazione Comunista came second with 0.81% equal to 148 votes. Neither of the two mayoral candidates involved in the run-off – Cosentino and Romeo – has made an official connection with the downtown area. In the first round it was the split vote in favor of Vincenzo Romeo that allowed the center-left to go to the run-off instead of the third pole. The appeal of the two aspiring first citizens is therefore addressed to the people of abstention and, above all, to the moderate pole which in the first round saw five lists running with Muzzopappa including those of Action and Noi Moderati, parties that at a national level look to the centre-right and also now in the run-off round together with the UDC, the League and the “Cuore vibonese” list (the most voted in the city with 1,943 votes, equal to 10.71% of the vote), which is headed by the former councilor regional Vito Pitaro, lined up in the first round with the centrist pole. The defeated candidate from the third pole, Francesco Muzzopappa, however, declared that he will support the centre-left candidate Vincenzo Romeo in the run-off. In the central pole, therefore, there is a clear split. The centre-right has been administering Vibo Valentia for over 15 years, with mayors such as Nicola D’Agostino, Elio Costa (twice mayor) and the outgoing Maria Limardo, the latter an expression of Forza Italia but not up for re-election.
The centre-left had instead managed to wrest the leadership of the city from 2005 to 2010 with mayor Franco Sammarco, who succeeded two other centre-right councils led by Alfredo D’Agostino (Nicola’s father) and Elio Costa.