Regional elections were held in Campania, Puglia and Veneto, amid record low voter turnout.
There were no real surprises in the outcomes of three regional elections held in the Italian regions of Campania, Puglia and Veneto following a two-day vote on Sunday and Monday.
The centre-left opposition retained control of the southern regions of Campania and Puglia while the candidate backed by Italy’s ruling right-wing coalition government won as expected in the northern Veneto region.
Prime minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the victory of Alberto Stefani, a member of the right-wing Lega party headed by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, who triumphed in Veneto with around 64 per cent of the vote.
Veneto
Stefani, 33, becomes Italy’s second-youngest regional governor ever*, defeating Giovanni Manildo of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) who secured 29 per cent of the vote.
Stefani takes over in Veneto – long a bastion of the Lega – from one of the party’s senior figures, Luca Zaia, who has governed the region for the past 15 years and was no longer eligible to run.
Campania
Robero Fico of the left-wing, populist Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) – backed by the PD and a broad alliance of smaller left-wing parties – won in Campania, taking more than 60 per cent of the vote.
His main centrodestra challenger was Edmondo Cirielli, deputy minister of foreign affairs and a senior member of Meloni’s right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party, who got 35 per cent.
Former lower house speaker Fico, 51, will succeed the outgoing PD governor of Campania, Vincenzo De Luca, who has served two terms over the past decade and was not permitted to seek a third mandate.
Puglia
Voters in Puglia, another centre-left stronghold which has been governed by the centrosinstra for the past 20 years, elected MEP and former Bari mayor Antonio Decaro (PD), who won 64 per cent of the vote.
Decaro, 55, defeated entrepreneur Luigi Lobuono – who was supported by the right-wing coalition and who took 34 per cent – to take over from outgoing Puglia governor Michele Emiliano.
Turnout
Voter turnout was down sharply in all three regional elections, news agency ANSA reports.
In Campania, around 44 per cent of registered voters cast their votes, down 11 points on the last election in 2020.
In Puglia, the figure was just over 41 per cent, down more than 14 points, while turnout in Veneto was 44.6 per cent, down 16.5 points.
Reaction
Meloni welcomed the election of Stefani in Veneto as a “victory resulting from the work, credibility and seriousness of our coalition”.
However the real winner in the northern region was the Lega which took 19 seats, almost double the number of Fratelli d’Italia, with Salvini hailing it as “a result beyond all expectations”.
Celebrating the election of Fico in Campania, PD leader Elly Schlein said: “There is an alternative; united we can defeat the right,” stating: “The right is afraid of losing: with the coalition we’ve built today, they wouldn’t have won in 2022 and would lose in 2027”.
A triumphant M5S leader and former premier Giuseppe Conte hailed Fico’s election as “an important political signal”, adding: “They’re not jumping around anymore” (a reference to a viral video in which Meloni joined Forza Italia leader and deputy premier Antonio Tajani in bouncing up and down to a chorus of “Anyone not jumping is a communist!” during a recent election rally in Naples).
Welcoming the election of Decaro in Puglia, Schlein said: “The real defeat today is Giorgia Meloni, defeated in Campania, Puglia, and even Veneto, where [Fratelli d’Italia] hoped to overtake the Lega and it didn’t happen.”
Political landscape
Since coming to power three years ago, Meloni’s coalition has won several regional elections and recently celebrated the re-election of governors Francesco Acquaroli in Marche and Roberto Occhiuto in Calabria.
Right-wing candidates also lost to the centre-left last year in Sardinia, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna as well as more recently with the re-election of Eugenio Giani in Tuscany.
“The next general election is wide open” – Schlein said on Monday – “United we win. Fico and Decaro’s margin shows that united we can win by a landslide”.
*Raffaele Fitto, now the executive vice-president of the European Commission, was elected president of Puglia in 2000 at the age of 31.
Photo ANSA
