Vendola, a gay communist President in a fairly conservative region, would have found hard to get re-election in a time when the centre-right led by Silvio Berlusconi was ahead of the centre-left both in Apulia and the whole country.

[1][2] The Democrats acknowledge that they needed a larger coalition in order to beat the centre-right and they were thus trying to convince Vendola to give up his bid and to endorse a more centrist candidate that could obtain the support of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) and Adriana Poli Bortone's I the South movement.

Michele Emiliano, Mayor of Bari and PD regional leader, had been constantly mentioned as a possible candidate who would have received the support of the UDC.

[2][3][4] For her part Poli Bortone might have been interested in the race but her right-wing upbringing (she was a member of the Italian Social Movement and of National Alliance) would undoubtedly have stirred the left.

[5] In a succession of events between late December 2009 and January 2010, Emiliano turned against Vendola[6] (whom he supported until then), asked his party's regional assembly to unanimously endorse himself.