According to the poll poll conducted by the state television channel Rai after the polling stations closed at 23, the left-wing liberal side gets between 47 and 51 percent, while the right wing gets between 44 and 48 percent of the vote. Finished results are expected on Monday morning.

The result can have major consequences

The election in Emilia-Romagna is followed with great interest in Italy as it is seen as an indicator of the voters' attitude to the government - and can have major consequences for Italian domestic policy.

As government cooperation in the capital Rome, between the left-center party PD and the Five Star Movement, falters, opposition victories in Emilia-Romagna may mean the end of the coalition.

"The more regional elections they lose, the worse the situation becomes when it becomes increasingly clear that the country is against the government," said political scientist Giovanni Orsina at the University of Rome in Rome earlier this week to the Reuters news agency.

Lega wants to take power in the traditional left-hand bracket

Today, too, Calabria has gone to elections, where opinion polls indicate that the right is taking power. But special attention has been paid to Emilia-Romagna and the region's capital Bologna, which, since the Second World War, has been one of Italy's strongest leftists. But in recent months, Matteo Salvini, party leader of the right-wing nationalist Lega, has campaigned hard to win votes in the region.

Salvini's investment in Emilia-Romagna has also aroused great resistance in the region. A movement started, which organized demonstrations and gathered tens of thousands of people in squares around the region - so tightly packed that the movement came to be called the "sardine movement".

According to the poll on Sunday evening, turnout in Emilia Romagna has almost doubled since the last regional election in 2014, which has caused Italian media to speak of a "sardine effect".