The centre right won five of seven provincial capital in mayoral run-offs Sunday and Monday while the centre left won one, Vicenza, and an independent another, Terni.
The centre left lost Pisa, Siena, Massa, Ancona and Brindisi to the centre right.
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The three Tuscan mayoral victories this time were holds for the centre right, while Brindisi had been ruled by the centre right in the past, but Ancona was a major gain for the majority that rules in Rome: Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's rightwing League party, and three-time ex-premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's centre right Forza Italia (FI) party.
The centre right won Ancona after over 30 years of centre-left rule in the Marche capital, two and a half years after the centre right won the regional government for the first time.
Daniele Silvetti got 51.73% of the vote in the mayoral run-off, beating outgoing centre-left councillor Ida Simonella who got 48.27%.
Meloni said the victory was an historic one and showed that there were no more fiefs or strongholds of the centre left that could not be conquered.
"We have obtained good results and some victories that could be defined as historic as in Ancona, confirming the fact that strongholds no longer exist", she said in a video message after the results of the administrative elections in which, she said, "the centre-right has won".
Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein said the centre left had suffered a "clear" defeat that showed that the headwinds that had blown the right to victory in last September's general election were still strong.
"It's a clear defeat. The win in favour of the rights (sic) is still strong and is still there. We thank all those who made the effort, our candidates, in these elections. They knew it would be difficult, it takes time to build a winning centre left. The fact that the PD is the top party in the list vote is not a consolation.
"It is evident that you can't win on your own," she added, stressing the need to build alliances on the centre left with the 5-Star Movement or the so-called Third Pole, which at the moment are mutually exclusive and with the latter saying Schlein is too far to the left.
Salvini mocked the "Schlein effect" after the centre right did so well.
"Nothing to say: a very good Schlein Effect," quipped Salvini on Twitter.
"Extraordinary results for the League and the centre-right throughout Italy, with historic victories in Ancona - the only regional capital on the ballot, which has always been administered by the left - and Brindisi, a triumph in Tuscany with the re-conquest of Massa, Pisa and Siena, while waiting for the results of the first round in Sicily in which we are very confident.
The centre right's Giuseppe Marchionna won the mayoral run-off in Brindisi beating the centre left's Roberto Fusco by 54% to 46%.
The race was closely watched as it was one of those featuring a centre left alliance between the centre left and the M5S.
This so-called red-yellow alliance was not enough to confirm the centre left in the mayoralty.
The centre right kept Pisa with incumbent mayor Michele Conti beating centre left candidate Paolo Martinelli. Conti won 52.23% to 47.77%.
This was despite Marinelli being backed by both the centre left and the 5-Star Movement (M5S) here too.
The centre right's Nicoletta Fabi won the Siena mayoral run-off beating the centre left's Anna Ferretti in a save for the centre right, becoming the Tuscan city's first woman mayor.
Fabi got 52.16% of the vote to Ferretti's 47.84%.
The Palio city had been taken from the long-ruling left in 2018.
The centre right's Francesco Persiani was confirmed as Massa mayor beating the centre left's Enzo Romolo Ricci by 54.6% to 45.4%.
The vote was one of the three in Tuscany, once a leftwing stronghold, that saw centre right candidates prevail again, albeit by a small margin.
Independent Stegano Bandicchi won Terni in a mayoral run-off beating the centre right's Orlando Masselli. Bandecchi got 54.62% of the cote compared to 45.38% for Masselli.
In the only solace for the centre left, Giacomo Possamai won the Vicenza mayoral run-off with 50.5% of the vote to the centre right's Francesco Rucco's 49.5%.
Both candidates said it had been a close-run thing.
In Sicily, meanwhile, the centre right was set to win Catania while it was also ahead in most other big cities according to exit polls.
A centre-right mayoral candidate is set to become the new mayor of Catania and a conservative independent in Ragusa while the race is too tight to call in two other big Sicilian cities that went to the polls Sunday and Monday, Siracusa and Trapani, according to the exit polls.
Centre-right candidate Maurizio Caserta won between 56% and 60% of the vote in Catania's local election, according to an exit pill by Noto Sondaggi for Videoregione Sicilia after the polling stations closed on Monday.
The centre left's Maurizio Caserta had 27.5-31.5% of the vote, according to the poll.
In the Ragusa municipal elections, outgoing Mayor Giuseppe Cassì - candidate of five civic lists - is ahead in the exit polls (Noto polls for Videoregione Sicilia) with a range between 59% and 63%.
He is followed, in second place, by the centre-left candidate Riccardo Schinnà with a range between 18% and 22%.
Another exit poll said that the mayoral elections in Siracusa look set to go to a run-off in two weeks with no candidate set to get over 50% of the vote.
Centre-right candidate Ferdinando Messina is ahead in the exit polls (Noto polls for Videoregione Sicilia) with a range between 24% and 28%.
He is followed, in second place, by the centre-left candidate, with the 5-Star Movement (M5S) too, Renata Giunta with a range between 23% and 27%.
Third place goes to the outgoing mayor Francesco Italia, candidate of some civic lists, with 20-24%.
The race for mayor in Trapani is also tight with both the centre-right and centre-left candidates polling in the low to high 40% range, below the 50%+1 needed to win outright without going to a run-off in two weeks time.
Centre-right candidate Maurizio Miceli is ahead in the exit polls (Noto polls for Videoregione Sicilia) with a range between 42% and 46%.
He is followed, in second place, by the outgoing mayor Giacomo Tranchida - candidate of the centre-left - with a range between 38% and 42%.
photo: new Ancona mayor Silvetti
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