Italians yesterday voted in a key regional election which the far-right hoped would shake the nation’s fragile coalition government to its core and return former deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini to power.
The wealthy center-north region of Emilia Romagna has been a stronghold of the Italian left for more than 70 years, but while left-wing values still hold sway in its cities, the right has been rallying serious support in towns and the countryside.
The last polls published before the pre-election media blackout showed Salvini’s anti-immigrant League neck-and-neck with the center-left Democratic Party (PD), which governs Italy in coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).
Photo: EPA-EFE
About 3.5 million citizens are eligible to cast ballots to elect the region’s president from 7am to 11pm, alongside similar regional elections in the smaller southern region of Calabria.
The League hopes for a repeat of its historic win in October in Umbria, which had been a left-wing fiefdom for 50 years.
Its candidate in Emilia Romagna, Lucia Borgonzoni, 43, has been overshadowed by Salvini, who has held daily rallies and inundated social media with snaps of him sampling delicacies in the Parma ham and Parmesan cheese heartland.
Salvini on Saturday infuriated the by breaking the pre-election silence — which under Italian law means candidates cannot campaign the day before a vote — by tweeting about the “eviction notice” he was set to deliver to the government.
The PD’s candidate, Stefano Bonaccini, is the incumbent president and is hoping to win for his track record in the region, which boasts low jobless figures and is home to “Made in Italy” success stories, such as Ferrari and Lamborghini.
He might also benefit from the youth-driven Sardines movement, which was born in the region just a couple of months ago, but has fast become a national symbol of protest against the far-right.
However, analysts say many local family-run, artisanal firms are disgruntled and feeling left behind by the march of globalization.
Others say the traditional left has abandoned those it once sought to defend for big banking interests.
The League triumphed in Emilia Romagna at the European Parliament elections in May, becoming the leading party with nearly 34 percent of the votes, topping the PD’s 31 percent.
Just five years earlier it had taken home a mere 5 percent, compared with the PD’s 53 percent.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has dismissed fears of a government crisis should Salvini’s party win, saying the election concerns the region alone and has no bearing on national politics.
The coalition’s main stabilizing factor is a joint fear of snap elections, which would likely hand power to Salvini, whose party is well ahead in national polls.
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