Donato Toma is the new governor of Molise after the centre right candidate won Sunday's election in the southern region - the first major test of voter sentiment since last month's inconclusive general election.
According to almost-final results, Toma won 43.46% of the vote, compared to 38.5% for Andrea Greco of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5s).
The Democratic Party's woes continued, with centre-left candidate Carlo Veneziale way back with 17.1%.
Agostino Di Giacomo of the far-right Casapound party got 0.42.
Centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi said "our coalition is growing in a major way" after the coalition featuring FI and the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League of Matteo Salvini won regional elections in Molise Sunday. Berlusconi also hailed the fact that, unlike at the national level in the March 4 general election, FI had kept ahead of the League at the regional level. "Inside the centre right Forza Italia is confirmed as the first ticket," he said.
On a partial count, FI got 9.4% of the vote in the southern region and the League 8.3%.
This compared with 14% and 17.%% respectively in the general election, which crowned Salvini as new centre-right leader supplanting long-time chief Berlusconi.
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