The centre right won five of seven
provincial capital in mayoral run-offs Sunday and Monday while
the centre left won one, Vicenza, and an independent another,
Terni.
The centre left lost Pisa, Siena, Massa, Ancona and Brindisi to
the centre right.
The three Tuscan victories were holds for the centre right,
Brindis had been ruled by the centre right in the past, but
Ancona was a major gain for the majority that rules in Rome:
Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy /FdI)
party, Deouty Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's
rightwing League party, and three-time ex-premier and media
mogul Silvio Berlusconi's centre right Forza Italia (FI party.
The centre right won Ancona after over 30 years of centre-left
rule in the Marche capital.
Daniele Silvetti got 51.73% of the vote in the mayoral run-off,
beating outgoing centre-left councillor Ida Simonella who got
48.27%.
The centre right's Giuseppe Marchionna won the mayoral run-off
in Brindisi Monday beating the centre left's Roberto Fusco by
54% to 46%.
The race was closely watched as it was one of those featuring a
centre left alliance between the centre left and the 5-Star
Movement (M5S).
This so-called red-yellow alliance was not enough to confirm the
centre left in the mayoralty.
The centre right kept Pisa with incumbent mayor Michele Conti
beating centre left candidate Paolo Martinelli. Conti won 52.23%
to 47.77%.
This was despite Marinelli being backed by both the centre left
and the 5-Star Movement (M5S) here too.
The centre right's Nicoletta Fabi won the Siena mayoral run-off
beating the centre left's Anna Ferretti in a save for the centre
right, becoming the Tuscan city's first woman mayor.
Fabi got 52.16% of the vote to Ferretti's 47.84%.
The Palio city had been taken from the long-ruling left in 2018.
The centre right's Francesco Persiani was confirmed as Massa
mayor beating the centre left's Enzo Romolo Ricci by 54.6% to
45.4%.
The vote was one of the three in Tuscany, once a leftwing
stronghold, that saw centre right candidates prevail again,
albeit by a small margin.
Independent Stegano Bandicchi won Terni in a mayoral run-off
beating the centre right's Orlando Masselli. Bandecchi got
54.62% of the cote compared to 45.38% for Masselli.
In the only solace for the centre left, Giacomo Possamai won the
Vicenza mayoral run-off with 50.5% of the vote to the centre
right's Francesco Rucco's 49.5%.
Both candidates said it had been a close-run thing.
Salvini mocked the "Schlein effect" referring to the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD)'s recently elected leftwing leader Elly
Schlein after the centre right did do well.
"Nothing to say: a very good Schlein Effect," quipped Salvini
on Twitter, commenting on the municipal elections.
"Extraordinary results for the League and the centre-right
throughout Italy, with historic victories in Ancona - the only
regional capital on the ballot, which has always been
administered by the left - and Brindisi, a triumph in Tuscany
with the re-conquest of Massa, Pisa and Siena, while waiting for
the results of the first round in Sicily in which we are very
confident.
In Sicily, in fact, the centre right was set to win Catania
while it was also ahead in most other big cities according to
exit polls.
A centre-right mayoral candidate is set to become the new mayor
of Catania and a conservative independent in Ragusa while the
race is too tight to call in two other big Sicilian cities that
went to the polls Sunday and Monday, Siracusa and Trapani,
according to the exit polls.
Centre-right candidate Maurizio Caserta won between 56% and 60%
of the vote in Catania's local election, according to an exit
pill by Noto Sondaggi for Videoregione Sicilia after the polling
stations closed on Monday.
The centre left's Maurizio Caserta had 27.5-31.5% of the vote,
according to the poll.
In the Ragusa municipal elections, outgoing Mayor Giuseppe Cassì
- candidate of five civic lists - is ahead in the exit polls
(Noto polls for Videoregione Sicilia) with a range between 59%
and 63%.
He is followed, in second place, by the centre-left candidate
Riccardo Schinnà with a range between 18% and 22%.
Another exit poll said that the mayoral elections in Siracusa
look set to go to a run-off in two weeks with no candidate set
to get over 50% of the vote.
Centre-right candidate Ferdinando Messina is ahead in the exit
polls (Noto polls for Videoregione Sicilia) with a range between
24% and 28%.
He is followed, in second place, by the centre-left candidate,
with the 5-Star Movement (M5S) too, Renata Giunta with a range
between 23% and 27%.
Third place goes to the outgoing mayor Francesco Italia,
candidate of some civic lists, with 20-24%.
The race for mayor in Trapani is also tight with both the
centre-right and centre-left candidates polling in the low to
high 40% range, below the 50%+1 needed to win outright without
going to a run-off in two weeks time.
Centre-right candidate Maurizio Miceli is ahead in the exit
polls (Noto polls for Videoregione Sicilia) with a range between
42% and 46%.
He is followed, in second place, by the outgoing mayor Giacomo
Tranchida - candidate of the centre-left - with a range between
38% and 42%.
photo: new Ancona mayor Silvetti
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