Emilia-Romagna, Umbria voting in key regional elections

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 17 - Some 4.3 million Italians are called to the polls Sunday and Monday for key regional elections in Emilia-Romagna and Umbria which will be another test for the right-wing national government and the centre-left opposition after last month's election in Liguria which saw the centre right narrowly prevail.
    The centre-right candidates are backed by Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's right-wing League party, and Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's centre-right Forza Italia party.
    The centre-left candidates are supported by the so-called 'broad field' of Elly Schlein's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), former two-time premier Giuseppe Conte's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), the Green-Left Alliance (AVS) of Angelo Bonelli and Stefano Fratoianni, and centrist groups Azione of former industry minister Carlo Calenda and Italia Viva (IV) of former premier and ex centre-leaning PD chief Matteo Renzi.
    A centre-right win in Emilia Romagna would be a seismic shock for the region, which with Tuscany is only one of two regions that has always leaned leftwards in the 54-year history of the regions, which were set up in 1970.
    The centre-left candidate in the northern region, Ravenna Mayor Michele de Pascale, is well ahead in pre-election polls of the centre right's Elena Ugolini, an independent head teacher with roots in the Catholic activist group Communion and Liberation (CL).
    The elections in Emilia-Romagna have been brought forward a few months after the election to the European Parliament of former centre-left governor and current PD chair Stefano Bonaccini, who in any case could not have stood for a third time.
    In Umbria the centre right is bidding to retain control of the region which it took for the first time with the League's Donatella Tesei five years ago.
    Incumbent Tesei, a civil and administrative lawyer who is the former mayor of the small town of Montefalco, is up against the centre left's Stefania Proietti, an engineer and researcher who is the current mayor of Assisi and president of the province of Perugia.
    The controversial right-wing mayor of Terni, Stefano Bandecchi, was running with his small right-wing Popular Alternative party but has now switched his support to Tesei and could swing the result in her favour, some pundits say.
    Pre-election polls in the central region were too close to call.
    Meloni is hoping the centre right's long winning run in regional elections, aside from one blip, will continue.
    Since it took office two years ago her rightwing coalition has prevailed in 11 out of 12 local elections if June's European elections are included.
    The sole centre left win has been in Sardinia.
    Voting in the two regions began at 07:00 Sunday and will run until 15:00 Monday.
    Turnout at noon Sunday was about half it was at the same stage last time.
    In Emilia-Romagna the election campaign was mainly animated by two issues: post-flood reconstruction and healthcare.
    On both issues there has been a blame game: the Left accuses the government of not having given the promised reimbursements to the flood victims, of not having put enough money into environmental protection projects and of having heavily defunded the public healthcare system.
    The Right accuses those who have administered the Region in recent years of not having spent the money that was made available by Rome and of having organized the public healthcare system in ways that have worsened its efficiency.
    The most tense moment of the entire election campaign was on November 9 when in Bologna, near the station, there was a neofascist CasaPound march that was first opposed by a garrison promoted by the partisans group ANPI, then by a demonstration by student groups that clashed with the police.
    A very harsh exchange of accusations and a very heated controversy followed, which pitted in particular the mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore and Meloni against one another.
    The premier accused the centre left of justifying violence against the police, a contention the centre left angrily denied, while saying the CasaPound demo should not have been allowed in the centre of a leftwing city like Bologna which in 1980 saw 85 people killed in the neofascist bombing of its train station, Italy's worst postwar atrocity.
    In Umbria the campaign has also seen clashes on whether Tesei, a heavyweight in Salvini's nationalist and anti-migrant League, has run the region known as the Green Heart of Italy well since becoming the right's first Umbria governor in 2019.
    Transport, health care and the environment have been the hottest electoral issues.
    In 2024 the centre right has won in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Piemonte and Liguria, while the centre-left broad field can only boast the win in Sardinia. (ANSA).