Italy’s left defeats right bid to take prize of Tuscany
The right conceded defeat on Tuesday after a fierce battle in Italy’s regional elections for the left-wing bastion of Tuscany.
The right conceded defeat on Tuesday after a fierce battle in Italy’s regional elections for the left-wing bastion of Tuscany, providing a major boost for the fragile national government.
“It’s an extraordinary victory,” the region’s centre-left candidate Eugenio Giani said as he defeated the right’s Susanna Ceccardi and League chief Matteo Salvini admitted “we knew it would be an extremely difficult fight”.
Experts had warned that a flurry of right victories in the elections in seven regions could further fracture the brittle national coalition of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and its partner, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). The highest-profile battle was for Tuscany, ruled by the left for 50 years. The left also quashed a bid by the coalition of the League, Giorgia Meloni’s anti-immigration Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia to snatch Puglia.
“What could have been elections that hammered the coalition government, that caused it to break apart, have transformed into elections that will allow it to survive and stay the course,” Corriere della Sera’s editor in chief Luciano Fontana said.
Ballots were cast nationwide for a referendum on cutting parliament numbers, which passed easily. But all eyes were on elections also held on Sunday and Monday in Campania, Liguria, Marche, Puglia, Tuscany, Valle d’Aosta and Veneto. The PD only narrowly frustrated a League bid in January to take Emilia Romagna, one of its biggest strongholds.
A win in Tuscany would have bolstered the right’s claim that the coalition — not elected, but installed after the previous government collapsed — was weak, and Italy’s president should bring forward the 2023 national election.
It would have lifted Senator Salvini to stardom and silenced his rivals for the far-right crown. His popularity soared when he served as interior minister and deputy prime minister in the last coalition government, pursuing policies hostile to immigrants.
But with the collapse of that administration last year and the coronavirus crisis this year, his profile — and standing in opinion polls — has fallen.
Monday’s results looked unlikely to lift it again. “Salvini has been stopped in his tracks. The Tuscans did not fall for his propaganda,” said Simona Bonafe, PD leader in Tuscany.
The left also easily held Campania in the south. The right triumphed in its strongholds of Veneto and Liguria, as well as taking Marche.
AFP
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