Giuseppe Conte, the President of the Italian Council.

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LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP / POOL

Italians are called on Sunday to challenge the progression of the coronavirus and go vote.

Seven regions - more than 20 million inhabitants - must elect their presidents.

In three of them, a possible victory for the right would be a rebuff for the government of Giuseppe Conte, a coalition formed a year ago between the 5 Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD, center-left).

All Italians must also vote on a national referendum on reducing the number of parliamentarians, an M5S electoral promise that should materialize.

The number of elected officials would drop from 945 to 600. For this very first ballot organized since the pandemic, the reluctance of the oldest voters will certainly weigh on the crowd in the polling stations, which open their doors this Sunday from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm local, but also Monday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

A polling station at the hospital

Only 1,820 voters, confined to their homes because of the coronavirus, asked to vote remotely.

In Rome, the Spallanzani hospital, a flagship facility for care against the virus, will install a polling station within its walls.

The establishment currently has 93 patients positive for Covid-19, including ten in intensive care.

But fear has already overtaken tellers and presidents of polling stations, who have massively withdrawn across the country.

The city of Milan launched an SOS on Saturday via social networks, to replace at short notice 100 presidents of polling stations.

On Saturday, the country recorded 1,628 new cases and 24 deaths in twenty-four hours.

For Massimo Galli, infectious disease specialist in Milan, these elections postponed several times are quite simply "madness".

The Red Bastion of Tuscany

The right-wing coalition made up of Matteo Salvini's League (far right), Fratelli d'Italia (FDI), Giorgia Meloni (far right) and Forza Italia (right) by Silvio Berlusconi, presents itself united in all regions.

The government coalition -PD and M5S-, on the other hand, advance divided, except in Liguria (north-west) where a common candidate has been found. 

All observers will have their eyes riveted on Tuscany, a “red” stronghold since the post-war period, where polls show candidates from left and right in a pocket handkerchief.

"The election in Tuscany will be decisive for Matteo Salvini", whose popularity crumbled during the pandemic, underlines political analyst Barbara Fiammeri, of the newspaper Sole 24 Ore. 

Probably no early legislative

The other two test regions are Campania (Naples) - where the outgoing president (PD) is nevertheless given a winner - and Puglia - where the current president (PD) is neck and neck with the candidate of the right -.

In Veneto, the popular president of La Ligue seems all the more unwavering as his left-wing competitor, positive for the coronavirus, has ended his virtual campaign from the hospital.

The result, known Monday evening, is not likely to bring down the government which has "no intention of organizing legislative elections" with an uncertain outcome, analyzes Franco Pavoncello, professor of political science at the American University John Cabot de Rome.

The time also calls for a certain stability: Italy must present to Brussels its national recovery plan in the face of the epidemic, to obtain 208.6 billion in grants and loans.

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