Right-wing parties win regional Italian election

A coalition of right-wing Italian parties won a regional election in Abruzzo, which pit the country's ruling parties against one another, results on Monday showed.

The right-wing alliance, which includes the League, the Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia won 48 percent, toppling a center-left coalition that took second place with 31.3 percent.

The League won almost 28 percent of the vote, doubling its showing at last year’s general election, but its national ruling coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5Star Movement, finished third with just over 20 percent, about half its score in the general election.

Turnout of around 53 percent was some 8 points down from the last regional election in 2014.

The contest in Abruzzo, a small mountainous region to the east of Rome was the first in which the 5Stars and the League have competed against each other since they teamed up to form the national government last June.

Polls leading up to the election had predicted the right-wing coalition led by Marco Marsilio, a senator from the far-right Brothers of Italy, would most likely beat the center-left alliance led by the Democratic Party (PD), whose lead candidate, Giovanni Legnini, had sought to distance himself from his own party after its poor results in last year's national ballot.

The victory for the right-wing alliance will be seen as a big win for League leader Matteo Salvini, Italy's interior minister and one of two deputy prime ministers. Ahead of the vote, Salvini had promised to "make history, and send the EU a clear message."

But the right-wing alliance was mocked by opponents for choosing a non-local, Marsilio, to be its candidate for governor, arguing that he lacks knowledge of regional issues.