Initial results of Italian local elections held on Sunday show that the rightwing populist League spearheaded a strong showing by the center-right alliance.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which has formed a government with the League at the national level but ran alone in the local votes, failed to make most of the runoffs.
But M5S leader Luigi Di Maio on Monday denied the M5S vote had slumped.
"They repeat the same old story that we're disappearing, it's fake news", he said.
"Davis is still beating Goliath," he said.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which fared badly in the March general election, was set to lose control of some important cities such as Catania but was on course to win in Brescia and reach the run-offs in several big councils in central Italy. Turnout was low across the nation compared with previous local elections but rising in Sicily. Unofficial data show an advance of the League in the north, where the party may take Treviso in the first round, and the center-right.
In the two Rome municipalities turnout was only 27% and M5S, the incumbent, may end up being left out of the second round of voting. The center-right is expected to win in the Sicilian city of Catania.
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