Marche elections: Meloni gives Governor Acquaroli a last-minute gift: the region is in the Special Economic Zone, like the South.

With timing that to call "suspicious" almost sounds like a euphemism, the last Council of Ministers before the summer holidays pushes the government to provide a welcome gift to the Marche , a centre-right led region with Meloni's Francesco Acquaroli expected to be re-elected in the vote on 28 and 29 September against the former mayor of Pesaro and current PD MEP Matteo Ricci .

While Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni , accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani , is travelling to Ancona to list the government's interventions for development in the Marche region, on Monday afternoon the government will approve a bill that extends the Special Economic Zone to the Marche and Umbria regions .

A bill that, with four articles, adds the region about to vote to the other Southern Italian regions (Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sicily, and Sardinia) that are already part of the ZES. This "zone" was established in 2023 to introduce tax breaks , as well as cuts in bureaucracy, to encourage investment in Southern Italy.

A gift that, from the stage of the 'Orfeo Tamburi' Auditorium in Ancona, outgoing governor Francesco Acquaroli gladly accepted in his quest for re-election, which is crucial for the center-right, but especially for the Brothers of Italy party, of which he is a prominent exponent.

Polls conducted in recent weeks, such as the one conducted by Izi in July, had in fact shown how the "broad field" supporting Matteo Ricci had managed to overtake Acquaroli and the center-right, albeit in a still very tight game.

The election campaign was then overturned by the news of Ricci's formal investigation into the so-called "foster care scandal," which dates back to the time when the Democratic Party representative was mayor of Pesaro and involved alleged corruption in the municipal contracts awarded to two non-profit organizations.

Transport Minister Matteo Salvini returned to this issue today, via video link from the Ancona Auditorium. "The center-right will win in the Marche region not because of the investigation, which we care nothing about," but because "in five years we have changed the Marche region," the other deputy prime minister said.

Prime Minister Meloni also used her platform to stage a full-blown pre-election rally . Meloni claimed her decision to give "this region an additional opportunity. The Council of Ministers at 3 p.m. will approve the law that allows the special economic zone to be extended to the Marche and Umbria regions," which "is an instrument that is yielding extraordinary results."

The opposition didn't like the announcements precisely because of their timing. "In Ancona , Meloni promised everything : all that's missing is 'it will be three Christmases.'" She's doing it to help her childhood friend Acquaroli, because she knows he wouldn't have anything to say on his own, given how he's reduced public healthcare," is the accusation from the Democratic Party group leaders in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Chiara Braga and Francesco Boccia .