The right wing was the big winner in the second round of municipal elections in Italy on Monday (29), winning in six provincial capitals and conquering strongholds of the left, such as Ancona, the capital of the Marche region, where progressives have ruled for more than three decades.
Between Sunday and Monday, Italy held an election in which the inhabitants of 41 municipalities went to the polls in a second round of voting after none of the candidates managed a majority of more than 50% in the first round held on May 14 and 15.
The main disputes took place in seven provincial capitals: Vicenza, Massa, Pisa, Siena, Terni, Ancona, and Brindisi, as well as in about one hundred municipalities in Sicily and Sardinia.
With counting completed, the candidates supported by the conservative coalition formed by the Brothers of Italy, the League, and Forza Italia parties won most of these contests: Massa, Pisa, Siena, Brindisi, and Ancona, while in Terni, an independent but close to right-wing civic list won.
Therefore, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni interpreted the results nationally as an endorsement of her government just nine months after her victory in the general elections.
“I want to thank all the citizens who have chosen to trust the center-right, rewarding our good government, our proposals, and our concreteness,” Meloni celebrated in a video posted on social media.
Of all the victories, the most symbolic is that of Ancona, run by the left for over three decades and that the new Democratic Party (PD), led by Elly Schlein, wanted to keep.
The new leader of social democracy in Italy not only lost this important seat but also failed to win back the Tuscan cities of Pisa and Siena, where the first round results were very close, and only won, with a 1% margin, in Vicenza, where her party ran on a list together with the center-left legends of Italia Viva and Azione.
In the first round, the progressives only managed to keep Brescia and Treamo among the largest municipalities.
“It’s a clear defeat. These are local elections, but they show that the wind is still blowing strongly in favor of the right,” admitted the leader of the Italian opposition at the party’s national headquarters in Rome.
In the first round, the right won in Treviso, Imperia, Sondrio (north), and Latina (center), confirming the good electoral performance of the conservative coalition.
In addition, elections were also held in 39 municipalities in Sicily, four of which are provincial capitals: Catania, Trapani, Ragusa, and Syracuse, and 128 other localities in Sardinia.
According to exit polls, the right would have swept Catania, Sicily’s second most populous city, with more than 60 percent of the vote, making a second round unnecessary.
The result in this city was especially symbolic because the three conservative leaders – Meloni (Brothers of Italy), Matteo Salvini (League), and Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia) – traveled there to promote their candidate, Enrico Trantino, who faced Maurizio Caserta, supported by the PD and the 5 Star Movement (M5S), in a new attempt at an alliance between the two opposition parties.
