Italian voters have thwarted right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini’s hopes of turning an election in a key northern region into a springboard for regaining national power.
Nearly complete results from Sunday’s election for the governorship of the prosperous Emilia-Romagna region had his League party candidate winning only 43.7% of support to the 51.4% garnered by the incumbent governor Stefano Bonaccini from the centre-left Democrats.
The Democrats are in Italy’s national coalition government led by premier Giuseppe Conte.
Italy, Emilia-Romagna regional election, 61.5% counted:
Bonaccini (CSX-LEFT|S&D|G/EFA|RE): 51.4%Borgonzoni (CDX-EPP|ECR|ID): 43.8%Benini (M5S-NI): 3.4%#ElezioniEmiliaRomagna #ElezioniRegionali pic.twitter.com/Lzu28Iavzk
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) January 27, 2020
But the big loser in that regional vote was the populist 5-Star Movement, which is Conte’s main coalition partner. The 5-Stars, who are the largest party in Italy’s national Parliament, tanked at some 3.5% of the vote.
Their poor showing, the latest slump in fortunes since their triumph in the 2018 national election, could worsen infighting in the 5-Stars and weaken their clout in Conte’s government.
In southern Calabria, the only other Italian region voting on Sunday, a centre-right candidate triumphed on a ticket that was backed by Salvini’s anti-migrant League party, the far-right Brothers of Italy party and the conservatives of former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.
Salvini sought to put a positive spin on his candidate’s defeat in Emilia-Romagna, saying he did remarkably well in a region that for decades has been a stronghold of the left.
Salvini himself had campaigned incessantly there, practically eclipsing his candidate Lucia Borgonzoni’s visibility.
