Italy’s battered centre left won the election for mayor of Rome and 15 other major cities yesterday, giving a lift to Prime Minister Enrico Letta as he strives to control an uneasy coalition with traditional rivals on the right.
The centre-left candidate in Rome, former surgeon Ignazio Marino, took 64 per cent of votes in a run-off ballot on Sunday and yesterday, defeating the outgoing mayor Gianni Alemanno, who won 36 per cent, the Interior Ministry said.
“Today is a day that the centre left has won extraordinary results in many cities across Italy,” Marino told reporters. “This is the capital and we need to regain the role of moral leader for our country.”
With around six million Italians eligible to vote in more than 500 towns and cities, the elections were the first big test since the formation of the Letta government in April, which came after a prolonged stalemate caused by an inconclusive national poll in February.
The grand coalition between Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party has aroused little enthusiasm, even among its members, but it was the only viable possibility after no party secured a majority in Parliament.
Yesterday’s result underlined broad popular disillusionment with Italy’s parties, with a dramatic slump in voter turnout in the capital to 45 per cent, down from 63 percent in the run-off in 2008 when Alemanno became mayor.
Despite the poor turnout, the vote offers a welcome success for the badly divided PD, which nearly imploded after throwing away the 10-point lead it held ahead of the national election.
“On the whole, the (election) result strengthens the grand coalition government,” Letta commented.
“I’m convinced that today we are capable of doing good work to obtain the results that citizens expect.”
The left won all 16 provincial capitals in the race, including Rome, to regain some momentum after its disastrous start to the year, which saw Pier Luigi Bersani toppled as party leader.
Berlusconi’s PDL and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of Beppe Grillo were left licking their wounds after failing to score any notable successes. (Reuters)