The centre-right is experiencing its own ‘Groundhog Day’ over the choice of mayoral candidate

Rome. A sense of nothingness pervades the scene, and a silence even denser than the already impenetrable darkness that, in 2021, had led the centre-right into a Mexican-style deadlock and then, months later, to the selection of a mayoral candidate: Enrico Michetti, nicknamed ‘Michetti who?’ in the literal sense: with just a few months to go before the vote, in fact, nobody had heard of him. Which is why, today, in the circumstances in which it finds itself – that is, less than a year before the local elections, with Roberto Gualtieri already in the running for a second term – the centre-right is experiencing yet another Groundhog Day and sees looming before it the spectre of a repeat of the ‘Michetti who?’ scenario. Is it taking remedial action? Well, sort of. The stalling continues. Moreover, there are factions within the centre-right that are still lamenting the change of course by Giovanni Malagò, now president of the FIGC but long regarded as the quintessential ‘civic’ figure. With the ‘civic’ label now removed – however tenacious the impression may be – and given that, as they point out not only in FdI but also in FI, “this time the choice of candidate falls to the Brothers”, there remains the need to put forward a political candidate – a name “eagerly awaited”, as they say on the Roman right – amongst councillors who, with the election campaign looming, hope precisely “that the mistake of 2021 will not be repeated”. Paradoxically, a name is already circulating: Fabio Rampelli, the Meloni-backed Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, has been meeting people across Rome for some time and has declared himself ready to run. He is actively on the move, while the others remain static. Nevertheless, he is not giving up. On Saturday he will attend ‘Fenix’, the FdI youth festival in the EUR district, for an event whose title (‘Rabbia e amore’) echoes the slogan of his first bid for the City Council back in 1993. More than thirty years have passed, and Rampelli is not only ready but is, so to speak, a shoo-in on the shortlist of political candidates. Except that, as a representative of Rome’s centre-right says, “it’s not certain that all the issues will be resolved before December”. In the meantime, he’s pressing ahead: there isn’t a single suburb where he doesn’t make an appearance (yesterday afternoon he was in Tor Bella Monaca; tomorrow, who knows, but the idea is to ‘mend’ the social fabric). And the Lega? No decision, no pressure, despite the looming local presence of General Vannacci. At which point, the group leader on the City Council, Fabrizio Santori, sounded the alarm: “Enough wasting time,” he said, addressing the entire centre-right, “Gualtieri can be beaten”. But by whom?