Meloni Smashes Through Italian ‘Red Wall’ Winning in Traditional Leftist Areas

The Italian centre-right alliance led by firebrand conservative Giorgia Meloni has overtaken the left-wing Democratic Party in traditionally leftist regions, smashing through the historic “red wall” of the Italian election landscape.

Election data suggests that the centre-right, which includes Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI), Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, have beaten the Democratic Party even in former leftist strongholds such as Tuscany and Emilia Romagna.

In Tuscany, the centre-right achieved between 40 to over 45 per cent of the vote in Lucca, Massa and Prato, a full ten per cent or more ahead of the left. But an even more shocking result, according to a report from the newspaper Il Giornale, took place in Pisa where League member Edoardo Ziello upset leftist candidate Stefano Ceccanti, winning 40 per cent of the vote compared to Ceccanti at 34.9 per cent.

Emilia Romagna also saw large gains for the Meloni-led alliance which won 39 per cent of the overall vote for the Italian Chamber of Deputies. And while the Democratic Party was the single largest party in the region, the leftist alliance won just 35.84 per cent of the votes cast on Sunday. Similar numbers were reported in the vote for the Italian Senate as well.

The centre-right alliance won seven of the eleven single-member constituencies in the region as well as three of the five single-member constituencies for the Italian senate. Under Italian election rules, some constituencies are voted on by individual candidates in a first-past-the-post system, while others are election lists using proportional representation.

While the centre-right broke through in the traditionally leftist areas, the Democrats managed to hold on to other historically leftist cities like Florence and Bologna.

In other former red wall regions, such as Umbria and Marche, the centre-right also saw victories, winning just under 45 per cent of the vote in Marche and continuing the gains the centre-right had made in the regions in the last national election in 2018.

Overall, the Meloni-led coalition won a total of 29 single-member constituencies in the former “red wall” compared to just nine for the left, marking the end of control in regions that have been dominated by leftist parties since they were controlled by the former Communios party decades ago.

The result echoes the United Kingdom election results in 2019 that saw now former Prime Minister Boris Johnson smash through the historic “red wall” once dominated by the Labour Party since the end of the Second World War. Johnson’s historic victory in Northern England saw the Conservatives reach the largest majority in the House of Commons since the last government led by Margaret Thatcher in 1987, with many Tories representing seats that had been solidly left-wing for a century.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.