Meloni coalition wins Venice mayoral vote, defying polls

By Angelo Amante

ROME, May 25 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition won the Venice mayoral election, projections showed on Monday, retaining control of the most prominent city at ​stake in a round of local votes held across Italy.

Polling ‌took place in more than 600 towns and cities in the first electoral test for the government since a bruising defeat in a justice referendum in March, a setback for Meloni that marked her most significant reversal since taking ‌power ​in 2022.

Venice – where controversy flared in recent weeks ⁠over Russia’s presence at ⁠the Biennale Art Festival – has been governed by the right for the past decade, but opinion polls published this month had pointed to a centre-left lead.

However, centre-right candidate Simone Venturini won nearly ​51% of the vote, the latest projections showed, ahead of his main opponent’s 39%, avoiding the runoff required when no candidate ⁠secures more than 50%.

Polling company Youtrend called ⁠the result for Venturini, saying the size of his ​lead meant the outcome was no longer in doubt.

“(Opposition) turned up ​in Venice convinced they could push the narrative that Meloni ‌was finished, that the centre-right was in crisis. Then Italians went to the polls and those expectations ran up against reality,” said Giovanni Donzelli, a senior lawmaker with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.

The municipal ⁠votes were among the last before general elections due next year, with the two main political blocs increasingly viewed as neck-and-neck in a race that ⁠will shape the ‌balance of power in 2027.

In Salerno, near the ⁠Amalfi Coast in southern Campania, Vincenzo De Luca ​was returned ‌for a fifth term, after previously serving for ​10 years ⁠as regional governor in a centre-left coalition.

In the Sicilian city of Messina, former Mayor Federico Basile – who is not aligned with either main coalition – secured a new term. The centre-right largely prevailed in Reggio Calabria, where the left had been in power since 2014.

(Reporting by Angelo AmanteEditing ​by Rod Nickel)