Roberto Gualtieri, a politician from the Democratic Party, has declared victory in Rome’s mayoral election, which closed the second round of partial municipal elections on Monday. Place the center right of Trieste among the major cities.
According to the Interior Ministry, Roberto Gualtieri, the former finance minister in Conte’s second government, won nearly sixty percent of the vote, ahead of the centre-right candidate.
Before the almost final gathering of votes, Gualtieri declared victory and his centre-right opponent, Enrico Michetti, conceded defeat.
The capital has been ruling him for five years Lost in the Five Star Movement (M5S), as well as Turin, where the Democratic Party candidate also received nearly sixty percent of the vote.
In Trieste, on the other hand, more than half of voters confirmed Roberto Dipiazza, who started with the colors of the League’s centre-right coalition, Italian Brotherhood (FdI) and Hijra Italia (FI), as mayor. This is the fourth consecutive state of Dipiazza.
In the second round of partial municipal elections two weeks ago, about five million voters were expected to go to the polls in 65 municipalities. The turnout was 43.9 percent, down nine percentage points from the second round five years ago. This is the lowest turnout in the history of local elections.
Of the six major cities participating in the first and second rounds on October 3-4, the center-left won five of them.
Giorgia Meloni, president of the Italian Brotherhood (FdI), said at a press conference that the right could not win over more major cities, but that did not mean the coalition was defeated at all.
“On the contrary, no party can rejoice that so few of them went to the polls and so few decided to choose the mayor of Rome: democracy is in crisis, not politics.” via.
He explained the failure of the center-right candidates by the split of the League, FdI and FI, stressing that the coalition currently has “three lives”. He indicated that they should nominate political candidates rather than civilians in the upcoming elections.
He added that the left was “mudding” the candidates on the right. Meloni declared that “the Democratic Party celebrates its victory over the corpse of the M5S,” referring to the left-wing party sucking up voters from the Five Star Movement.
In his press conference, Matteo Salvini “downplayed” the center-left victory, noting that the center-right had won 15 new mayoral seats in the two-round election and that the majority of provinces were also led by the center-right.
Analysts noted that traditionally left-wing voters living in major city centers did not stray from the polls, while voter morale in surrounding areas was low among voters in the past and the Five Star Movement.
