Regional voting starts in Italy in test for PM Giorgia Meloni
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Far-right candidates backed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to win in Lombardy and Lazio.
PHOTO: AFP
ROME – Polling stations opened on Sunday for regional elections in Italy’s two most populous regions – polls seen as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s three-month-old government.
Home to a combined 13 million residents, the northern economic powerhouse of Lombardy and Lazio, which includes the capital Rome, will elect a new regional president and assembly members.
Candidates backed by Ms Meloni’s hard-right coalition are expected to triumph in both regions.
Her far-right Brothers of Italy party made history by securing 26 per cent in September’s legislative elections.
And in October she became Italy’s first female prime minister, at the helm of the most right-wing government in Rome since World War II.
The vote will also be closely watched for signs of tensions between Ms Meloni and her coalition partners – Mr Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Mr Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia.
In Lombardy, regional president Attilio Fontana, a member of Mr Salvini’s League and the candidate of Ms Meloni’s coalition, is expected to be re-elected for another five-year term.
Further south in Lazio, right-wing candidate Francesco Rocca is expected to win in the face of a divided opposition, replacing the Democratic Party’s Nicola Zingaretti, who resigned after being elected to the national parliament in 2022.
Results are expected later on Monday. AFP