PALERMO -- With the centre-left winning six regional capitals after the run-off round of Italian mayoral elections, Brothers of Italy member and President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa criticised electoral law. 

  Whilst Elly Schlein, leader of the Democratic Party (PD) celebrated  “a historic victory” which sent “a message to the government”, La Russa noted that local elections should be changed. 

  “The double votes is not redeeming and actually increases abstention. From 62.8 per cent in the first round it then dropped to 47.7 per cent. Sometimes even those with fewer votes than their opponents in the first round are elected. We need to rethink our electoral law for local elections.” 

  The centre left maintained its two strongholds: Florence and Bari, with the Democratic Party’s (PD) Sara Funaro winning by 60 per cent against Eike Schmidt in Florence. In Bari, Vito Leccese, also from the Democratic Party who won by 40 per cent against the League’s Fabio Romito. 

  However, the notable victory for the PD was in Perugia, where Vittoria Ferdinandi won the seat after 10 years of right-wing rule. The left continued to win seats in Potenza, Campobasso, and Cagliari in Sardinia. 

    On the right, their strength came from the provinces. They maintained a hold on Vercelli and Urbino and pulled Lecce, Rovigo, and Caltanissetta from the left. In Verbania and Avellino, two civic candidates, Giandomenico Albertella and Laura Nargi, were elected. In total, the centre-left won 6 regional capitals, the right won 5, and the civic candidates won two.

  Including the results of the first round, the right saw their number of mayors drop from 13 to 10, while the centre-left, in some cases including the 5-Star Movement, increased from 14 to 17, with the two civic candidates remaining constant.  

    jp-lw