Italian Prime Minister Meloni suffers regional vote setback
By Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) -Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suffered a rare electoral setback on Monday when her conservative coalition lost control of one region and lost ground in another that was already a centre-left stronghold.
The twin victories for the Democratic Party (PD) and its disparate allies in Umbria and Emilia-Romagna provided a badly needed boost for the centre-left, which has struggled to land political blows on Meloni since she won national power in 2022.
“This is sign of where we can go when we are united and focused on a goal,” said PD leader Elly Schlein, acknowledging how deep divisions amongst opposition parties previously helped the right consolidate its hold on much of Italy.
The left has governed the wealthy region of Emilia-Romagna, which is home to the Ferrari sports car and Parmesan cheese, since World War Two and had been expected to extend that unbroken run in the Nov. 17-18 local ballot.
But it did better than many had predicted, with PD candidate Michele De Pascale winning almost 57% of the vote, well above the 51% the centre-left secured at the last such election there in 2020.
Umbria, north of Rome, had also been a leftist bulwark until the right bucked the trend in 2019, when a member of the anti-immigrant League party became governor. But the right’s reign lasted just one term, with Stefania Proietti, the PD mayor of Assisi, taking 51.5% of the vote to beat the incumbent.
The twin ballots came barely a week after violent protests roiled Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna, where hard-right demonstrators had faced off against anti-fascist groups in the city centre.
Bologna’s mayor accused the government of dispatching rightist thugs to stir up trouble. League leader Matteo Salvini, who is deputy prime minister, denied the accusation and called the left-wing protesters “communist insects” – an insult used in the 1970s by neo-fascists.
Meloni, attending a G20 summit in Brazil, swiftly conceded defeat on Monday and said she hoped for a constructive relationship with both De Pascale and Proietti.
Since triumphing in national elections in 2022, Meloni’s bloc had won nine regional elections, while the centre-left had taken just one before Monday.
The right has maintained a solid lead in national opinion polls over the past two years, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party comfortably the most popular group in the country.
While the PD has managed to shore up its own supporter base, it has failed to forge effective alliances with other opposition parties, especially the maverick 5-Star Movement, which is riven by furious internal divisions.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alex Richardson and Leslie Adler)
