Italy’s right-wing alliance sweeps polls with election triumph in former left-wing stronghold

Far-right leader and former interior minister Matteo Salvini had vowed to wrest Umbria, a hilly region prized for its truffles and prosciutto, from the left

He said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s ‘days are numbered’ as he eyes a series of key regional votes that he hopes will sweep him back to power

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Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's far-right League party. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:10pm, 28 Oct 2019Updated: 9:10pm, 28 Oct 2019

Italy’s right-wing opposition alliance was celebrating an eye-catching victory on Monday in a leftist stronghold, which has dealt an embarrassing blow to the country’s ruling coalition.

Firebrand Matteo Salvini had vowed to wrest Umbria, a hilly region prized for its truffles and prosciutto, from the left in the first of several key regional elections he hopes will sweep him back to power.

Salvini said the results of Sunday’s vote were “extraordinary”, expressing his “joy and emotion” after the right’s candidate Donatella Tesei won with more than 57 per cent, compared to 37 per cent for the coalition government’s candidate.

It was Salvini’s anti-immigrant League party that had swept the board, bringing home 37 per cent of the vote alone in a region which has voted left for 70 years but has been hit hard by the economic crisis.

The former interior minister’s campaign trail allies – the smaller, far-right Brothers of Italy, and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia – respectively won 10 per cent and 5.8 per cent.