Italy’s right-wing government received a resounding endorsement from the electorate on Monday as conservative coalition parties secured victory in the key Lazio and Lombardy regional elections.
In the first electoral test for Giorgia Meloni’s administration since coming to power in September last year, her coalition of right-wing parties secured more than half of the vote share in the two most important regions of the country.
Initial reporting suggests the right has comfortably retained control of the Lombardy regional government, home to the country’s financial capital of Milan. However, Meloni’s governing coalition also seized control of Lazio from the center-left, which covers the capital of Rome. The two regions account for more than a quarter of Italy’s population and generate a third of the country’s economic output.
The electoral victory will see Francesco Rocca elected as president of the Lazio region, while Attilio Fontana will retain his position in Lombardy.
“Pride for the work done, responsibility for the trust given: Thank you, Lombardia,” tweeted Fontana following a phone call with left-wing candidate Pierfrancesco Majorino who conceded defeat.
“Now we get to work,” added Rocca.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tweeted her congratulations to both regional leaders on Monday afternoon for their “clear victory” and expressed her confidence “that they will do their best to honor the mandate received from the citizens of Lazio and Lombardy.”
She said the result “consolidates center-right compactness and strengthens the work of the government.”
Initial reporting shows Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) as the party to receive the highest share of the vote, at 25.7 percent in Lombardy and 34 percent in Lazio respectively.
The biggest loser in both elections was undoubtedly the center-left Five Star Movement (M5S), which recorded a 5.3 percent vote share in Lombardy and just 4.1 percent in Lazio, down from 14.6 percent and 17.8 percent in the 2018 election.
“If the exit polls are true, it is a success of the center-right (…) in Lazio and also Lombardy. A vote of confidence in the center-right,” said Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani.
Italy’s Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida said the electoral victory showed voters were “rewarding the good governance of the center-right” and punishing “the bad governance of the center-left. Two results that can only satisfy us both from a territorial and national point of view.”
