Prime Minister Meloni's coalition wins Venice mayoral election

(Patria) - Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition won the Venice mayoral election, projections showed on Monday, retaining control of the most important city in a round of local elections held across Italy, Reuters reported.

The elections were held in over 600 towns in the first electoral test for the government since a heavy defeat in a justice referendum in March, which was a blow to Meloni and marked her most significant setback since taking office in 2022.

Venice, where controversy over Russia's presence at the Art Biennale flared up in recent weeks, has been under right-wing rule for the past decade, but opinion polls published this month indicated a centre-left lead.

However, centre-right candidate Simone Venturini won nearly 51% of the vote, the latest projections showed, ahead of 39% for his main opponent, avoiding a second round needed when no candidate secures more than 50%.

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

"(The opposition) showed 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 were countered by reality," said Giovanni Donzelli, a senior MP from Meloni's Brothers of Italy party.

The municipal votes were among the last before a general election to be held next year, with the two main political blocs increasingly seen 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, having previously served as regional governor for a decade in a centre-left coalition.

In the Sicilian city of Messina, former mayor Federico Basile, not affiliated with any major coalition, secured a new term. The centre-right largely prevailed in Reggio Calabria, where the left had been in power since 2014.