Center-right wins local elections in Italy's 2 most populous regions

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) – Candidates of Italy's center-right alliance won local elections in the country's two most populous regions, Lazio and Lombardy, partial results showed on Monday.

Ballots confirmed that the ruling center-right coalition, headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, holds strong support among voters in both the central Lazio region, which includes the capital Rome, and northern Lombardy, where Italy's financial capital Milan is located.

According to projections based on partial results, the center-right candidate -- former Red Cross President Francesco Rocca -- beat the candidate of the center-left, Alessio D'Amato, with the 5-Star Movement's Donatella Bianchi left at third.

According to projections, Rocca was elected the new president of Lazio with 49% of the vote.

In Lombardy, the center-right candidate Attilio Fontana was reelected for a second mandate with 55% of the vote, beating Pierfrancesco Majorino, candidate of the center-left, and Letizia Moratti of the centrist "third pole."

Turnout in the elections, which involved 12 million voters, was low in both regions, reaching 41.6% in Lombardy and 37.2% in Lazio.

The elections' outcome was good news for the right-wing coalition government led by Meloni, who congratulated Rocca and Fontana for their "clear victory."

"A result that reinforces the unity of the center-right and strengthens the work of the government," Meloni said in a tweet.