ROME - Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) has lost crucial seats at Venice and Arezzo in council elections held Sunday, electoral officials say. For the first time in over 22 years, the centre-right took over Venice’s council.  Results from the elections highlighted both a nation-wide increase in apathy with 47.11% of the electorate voting, and the difficulties that the centre-left parties are facing.

Lorenzo Guerini, from the PD, announced that whilst “detailed analysis confirms that the PD is clearly the largest party in Italy, also in terms of the number of mayors, this is not cause enough for a toast”. He continued by saying that "the fact that we won back cities of symbolic importance like Mantua and Trani, while other good administrators held their positions, starting with Lecco, is not enough for us to consider this result to be positive". 

The most anticipated vote of these elections was that of Venice. The result was very much up in the air, following last year’s arrest of their then centre-left Mayor Giorgio Orsoni for his part in the Mose affair.  It came down to a committee to take charge for over a year, in await of Sunday’s elections. The council has now changed allegiances, with Luigi Brugnario, from the centre-right, beating the Senator and ex-Magistrate Felice Casson, with a comfortable 53.21% of the vote.

 The centre-right’s success in the Veneto region was widespread, with the election of the Northern League’s Massimo Bergamin in Rovigo, who managed to win around 60% of the vote, and with wins in Castelfranco and Lonigo.

The PD also lost Fermo and Matera, as well as Nuoro after 20 years of centre-left governance. Nuoro's exiting Mayor Alessandro Bianchi, won little more than 30% of the vote, with the Partito sardo d’azione (the Sardinian Action Party) winning 70%.

The Centre Left however managed to take Aosta, Mantova, Trani and kept Trento, Bolzano, Lecco and Macerata. The PD also won the Mayoral seat of Agrigento, however the rest of the council is still heavily dominated by the New Centre Right party.

The increase in apathy between the first wave of council elections and these elections is notable, with a fall of 16.10% of voters. Puglia experienced the worst turnout, with only 37.6% of the Trani electorate voting.