Salvini’s euroskeptic League party triumphs in local vote
Matteo Salvini’s League party triumphed in voting in an Italian region where the left had held power for some 50 years, dealing a humiliating blow to the national government’s coalition parties, AP reports.
Results on Monday from the balloting on the previous day for the governorship of Umbria, one of the country’s smallest regions, gave a coalition headed by Salvini, including the right-wing Brothers of Italy party and former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party, a combined 57.5 percent of the votes. Donatella Tesei, a League member and current senator who has served as mayor of a town in Umbria for 10 years, was elected governor.
A coalition anchored by the populist 5-Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party took a trouncing with a combined 37.5 percent.
The election results in Umbria have raised questions about how long the national government in Rome can survive.