The battle for southern Italy marks the end of the electoral campaign

• Elections The Italian right closes the campaign in Rome savoring victory

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the money is in the north, the Parliament and the ministries in the center and the voters, at least the last voters, are in the south.

For this reason, the formations that for months, years or even decades have neglected or reviled everything that is below Lazio turn in the last stages of the electoral campaign on express trips to the Mezzogiorno.

Palermo, Bari, Caserta, Reggio Calabria, Catania, Crotone have unexpectedly become the heart of the debate.

Not counting today's session,

has traveled to the area four times in the last week;

Giuseppe Conte, leader of Cinco Estrellas, has traveled five times but visiting 23 locations.

Matteo Salvini, from La Liga, four.

Enrico Letta, from the PD, four trips.

Another former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, two.

And Antonio Tajani, Berlusconi's right-hand man, also two, but stopping in 14 towns or cities.

.

The basic income, introduced in 2019, is not actually universal, but for dependents, the unemployed and those with very low incomes.

It is linked to the family situation and includes a series of procedures and requirements to be able to access the aid, of between 400 and 720 euros, approximately.

For the left it is sacred, especially for Conte, whose government was the driving force behind it.

For the right, which calls him 'paguita', it has become a key point in his speech.

They argue that it is a clientelistic element, that it creates vagrants, discourages the search for employment and only serves to keep the south, where most of the beneficiaries reside, in poverty.

For the left, the area and the issue is a fishing ground for votes.

To the right too, but in the rich and industrialized northern part.

Hence, the proliferation of displacements is not surprising, but perhaps it is that both

(the collective one was held on Thursday in Rome).

Meloni arrived in Naples this Friday, but not as expected or for what could be expected.

He scheduled the closure in Arenile di Bagnoli, on the outskirts of the capital of the South.

A poor area, with an industrial, steel past, but which now distributes more citizen income than almost any other area of ​​the peninsula, the 'paghetta', the 'paguita'.

The keys

Analysts explain the election according to three variables.

The first, the need to scratch votes from the south, like everyone else, since the north seems quite determined among the established forces.

In all his past raids, the leader of the Brothers of Italy took advantage of each and every one of his opportunities to attack Antonio Conte, former prime minister and questioned leader of Five Stars.

It is his fishing ground and Meloni seeks to fish, but above all to break the rival nets.

The second reason is the media.

Meloni in the south sells and there were dozens of journalists waiting to hear her words, to see if she came combative or relaxed (as was the case) but above all in case there were protests.

The facades of the buildings adjoining the singular place chosen for the act were plagued with banners of 'Bella ciao' and entire paragraphs of the partisan song, which last week became an unexpected campaign controversy after Laura Pausini refused to sing it in a Spanish television program for its political content.

And there were protesters, a few, but no riots.

A few weeks ago Meloni was upset when a group of teenagers protested at one of her rallies with banners mocking paraphrasing her campaign mantra, "siam pronti," "we are ready," which has echoes of the national anthem.

He complained to the ministry about the lack of security, threatened those responsible for Justice and the Interior in the region with making them accountable for their actions or inactions when he comes to power.

And he got a huge police device, worthy of a G-7.

The place in Arenile, a green oasis that looked like a

beach bar on a posh beach, was full of sympathizers and some onlookers, but no one protested or questioned his presence or his responses.

His intervention was calm, discreet.

He knows that his strength lies in viral messages

, in presenting himself as different, not in simple oratory.

He did not have much need either, because he spoke for converts and in this type of situation there is more to lose than gain.

He had an appointment soon after on the evening news, in front of Letta, and that was his priority.

She did not hide it, she did not hide it, and after answering simple questions from the public, he left as he came, running.

Letta was waiting for her in Piazza del Popolo, curiously the same location chosen the day before by the

.

Excited, active, but with less convening capacity.

The third reason for this commitment to the south is strategic and the daughter of the previous two:

.

Meloni's team, which has been clearly winning for a long time, is not so worried about its rivals as it is about the "party of abstention", which they foresee massive.

They fear that the certainty of victory will demobilize their supporters so any opportunity to remind them to go to the polls is welcome.

The key, as in most contemporary elections, is not what he said or how he said it, because there was nothing remotely new, brilliant or for posterity, but how his message is distributed, repeated and amplified.

Sometimes by the party, sometimes by its critics, most of the time simply by the media.

A few hours before the schools open, there is no bad publicity.

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