Thirteen million voters have been called to the polls since this Sunday and until Monday afternoon to renew the governments of Lombardy and Lazio. This is the first political test since Giorgia Meloni and his Fratelli d’Italia party came to power in September.
With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir
Keeping the Rome region seems practically impossible for the centre-left, which presents different candidates for the post of governor, while the right-wing parties support a single candidate, Francesco Rocca, from Fratelli d’Italia. For Lombardy, again, faced with a divided opposition, the entire right supports outgoing governor Attilio Fontana, a member of the League.
But his victory, like that of Francesco Rocca, could be largely due to the results of Giorgia Meloni’s party, which remains Italy’s leading force, with 29.5% of voting intentions, according to the latest polls.
Strong results for Fratelli d’Italia would put it in an even more dominant position and could stoke tensions with its allies Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. For example on aid to Ukraine, strongly criticized this Sunday by Berlusconi who broke the electoral silence by firing red bullets against President Zelensky.