02/13/2023 20:15 (act. 02/13/2023 20:20)
The regional elections are an important test of mood for Meloni ©APA/AFP
Candidates from centre-right parties have been successful in elections in Italy’s two most populous regions. According to the preliminary results of the elections, the regional president Attilio Fontana of the Lega managed to be re-elected in Lombardy with the financial metropolis of Milan. In Lazio, with Rome as its capital, right-wing candidate Francesco Rocca won.
Lawyer Fontana, who has been president of Lombardy for five years, won 56% of the vote in Lombardy, Italy’s richest region. His Social Democrat opponent, EU lawmaker Pierfrancesco Majorino, had to concede defeat with 32 percent of the vote.
In Lazio, after ten years under the leadership of a centre-left alliance, there is a political turning point. In the region with the capital Rome, Francesco Rocca, candidate of the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia (FdI – Brothers of Italy) party around Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has asserted itself. Rocca, former president of the Red Cross in Italy, defeated social democratic candidate and health adviser Alessio D’Amato with 50% of the vote. His Fratelli d’Italia party won 33% of the vote in Lazio, four percent more than in September’s parliamentary elections.
Some twelve million voters in the two Italian regions were called upon to choose their representatives in the regional parliament and the regional president at polls on Sunday and Monday. Voter turnout was low at 42 percent, according to the Interior Ministry in Rome. In the last regional elections five years ago, turnout was 70%. In the capital Rome, with its 3.5 million inhabitants, attendance dropped to a record 33%.
Members of the regional council are elected in Italy by proportional representation and remain in office for five years. In total, Italy is made up of 20 regions. Some of them – such as the Trentino-Alto Adige region – have a special status with extensive autonomy.
The regional elections are seen as an important test of humor for Prime Minister Meloni’s right-wing coalition government, which has been in office since October and has congratulated the election winners. “I am sure that Fontana and Rocca will do their best to fulfill the vote and mandate of the people of Lazio and Lombardy. This is an important and significant result that consolidates the unity of the center-right alliance and the work of the government”, Meloni said.
The Social Democrats of the Democratic Party (PD) suffered yet another defeat after embarrassing themselves in September’s general election. “Either we radically change our party or it dies,” tweeted PD lawmaker Chiara Gribaudo. On February 26, the new head of the PD will be elected in place of former Prime Minister Enrico Letta, who resigned. Four candidates are running for Letta’s successor. Letta resigned following her PD’s defeat in the September parliamentary election.
“The electoral results in Lombardy and Lazio are unequivocal: the centre-right alliance is winning in both regions. We cannot, therefore, be satisfied with this global result, made even more negative by the worrying increase in abstention”, commented Letta.