A cold shower for Matteo Salvini's far-right League after the regional elections in Italy.

As the ballot was counted, which took place over two days, Sunday and Monday, the Democratic Party (center-left), which has governed in coalition with the 5-Star Movement for a little over a year, seemed certain to keep three regions: Tuscany, Puglia and Campania.

The right, it delights the region of Marche to the left and keeps Liguria and Veneto.

At the start of the month, Matteo Salvini set himself the goal of winning all regions.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, an important member of the Democratic Party (PD), considered that this regional result strengthened his training as well as his leader, Nicola Zingaretti.

“Now that he and the PD are stronger, the government can move forward,” he tweeted.

The League remains the most popular political party in Italy, but its rating has fallen steadily over the past year in opinion polls, as has Salvini's.

The attention of this ballot was particularly turned towards Tuscany, traditional bastion of the left where the League campaigned relentlessly, as last January when it tried, in vain, to take Emilia-Romagna.

According to a partial tally, the PD have a 6.4 percentage point lead over the League.

Towards a reduction in the number of parliamentarians

At the same time as the regional ones, the Italians largely voted by referendum in favor of a reduction in the number of parliamentarians, from 945 currently in both chambers to 600.

Some 70% of voters approved this reform advocated by the 5-Star Movement (M5S), which welcomed Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, one of the heads of the M5S, who hailed "a historic result ".

Another matter of concern for Matteo Salvini, the president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, considered a potential rival to take the head of the League, was re-elected very largely at the head of his region, with 75% of the votes.

The seventh region at stake in these regional elections, the Aosta Valley, has its own partisan system, different from the rest of Italy.

A list favorable to the League was however in the lead according to the partial results.

With Reuters

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