Italy's left overpowers right-wing in key election in northern region: Exit polls

Exit polls show Italy’s right-wing leader Matteo Salvini has failed in his bid to weaken the national government by winning a key vote in a northern region and ending the leftist camp’s seven decades of rule there.

According to exit polls released on Sunday the Salvini’s League failed to win the leftist stronghold of Emilia-Romagna in the north, bringing huge relief to the embattled center-left.

Pollster forecasts based on an ongoing count predicted the incumbent Democratic Party governor, Stefano Bonaccini, had won between 51%-49% of the vote, compared to 43%-45% for Salvini’s League candidate, Lucia Borgonzoni.

“Emilia-Romagna has sent a signal. Salvini knows how to talk about problems, but he doesn’t know how to sort them out and the people have responded,” said the center-left Democratic Party leader Nicola Zingaretti.

Salvini’s party had campaigned heavily in the region since the start of the year, seeking a shock victory that he hoped would bring down the fragile national government.

Emilia-Romagna is one of Italy’s wealthiest regions, which is home to the Ferrari sports car and Parmesan cheese, and has proved an impregnable leftist stronghold for some 70 years.

An election win for Salvini and his allies could result in the collapse of the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party and consequently lead to national legislative elections sought by Salvini.

Underscoring the enormous interest in the ballot, turnout hit 68% — some 30 points up on the last such election in 2014.

However, while the Democratic Party dodged disaster, there was less good news for its coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which looked on course to win barely 5% of the vote in Emilia-Romagna and little more than 6% in Calabria.

The party emerged as Italy’s largest group in the 2018 national elections with 33% backing, but it has seen its support slide in recent months leading to a wave of defections among its lawmakers and the resignation of its leader Luigi Di Maio.

Political analysts predicted that Sunday’s ballot-box setback would weaken the 5-Star’s standing within the coalition and give the Democratic Party more power to dictate its own policy priorities.

In a rare political miscalculation, Salvini walked out of government with 5-Star last August, expecting to trigger a national election that polls predicted he would easily win.

Instead, 5-Star joined up with the Democrats and shunted him into opposition. Looking to exact revenge, Salvini has since concentrated all his efforts on winning a stream of local votes.

The right has now won nine regional elections since March 2018, while chalking up just the one loss in Emilia-Romagna.

Salvini’s anti-immigrant, anti-European message resonated during the campaign, as did his pledge to slash taxes.

Italians rally against far-right surge in north ahead of crucial regional vote

Tens of thousands of Italians rally in the northern city of Bologna, a leftist bastion targeted by the far right in elections this month.

But incumbent Bonaccini had one of the highest approval ratings of any Italian regional chief and focused exclusively on core local issues.

Bonaccini was given a boost by a grassroots movement that sprang up during the campaign, earning itself the name “the Sardines” by packing local squares with anti-Salvini rallies.

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