The center-left in Italy, united in the so-called grand coalition, managed to maintain control over the Italian region of Tuscany, where regional elections were held on Sunday and yesterday, ANSA reported, BTA reported.
The current regional governor Eugenio Gianni, who was supported by the united left, received 53.95 percent, while his opponent from the united right, Alessandro Tomasi, received 40.90 percent. Gianni, 66, thanked voters for their vote of confidence in him again.
Before becoming mayor, Gianni, an amateur historian, was head of the Dante and Michelangelo museums in Florence, the capital of the Tuscan region. His right-wing opponent, Tomasi, 46, was twice mayor of Pistoia and is a member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party.
The vote in Tuscany was part of a total of seven regional elections in Italy this year. Four have been held so far. The united right won in the Marche and Calabria regions. In Valle D’Aosta, the parties that insist on the independence of the region won.
On November 24 and 25, there will be three regional votes in three regions that are popular tourist destinations - Veneto, Campania and Puglia. Polls predict a victory for the left in Puglia and Campania and a victory for the right in Veneto. Campania and Veneto have for years been considered bastions of the left and the right, respectively, but the battle for Puglia looks set to be contested.
There has been a decline in voter turnout in the regional votes so far. In the vote in Tuscany, it was 14.47 percent lower than in 2020. Now it was 47.73 percent, and five years ago it was 62.2 percent. The election campaign for the regional elections was also marked by the entry of the topic of the Gaza Strip into it, in addition to a number of domestic political topics.