Italy's Meloni secures tight win in Liguria regional election

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing coalition pulled off another regional election win on Monday, near final results from Liguria in the northwest showed on Monday, in a mid-term boost for the prime minister.

With counting done in more than 92% of polling stations, conservative Marco Bucci, the mayor of regional capital Genoa, was leading with 48.6% versus 47.5% for his centre-left rival and former minister, Andrea Orlando.

"Congratulations to Marco #Bucci for his victory," Meloni wrote on X.

Monday's is the latest in a series of regional election wins for Meloni, coming days after she celebrated her first two years in office with a solid lead in national opinion polls. Two more regional contests will be held next month.

The result is also a bitter blow for Italy's divided opposition, as it was hoping a victory could help cement a fractious alliance built around the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the left-leaning Five Star Movement.

The Liguria vote, which took place on Sunday and Monday, was triggered by the resignation in July of conservative regional president Giovanni Toti, who quit after being arrested on charges of corruption.

Toti denied wrongdoing but struck a plea bargain to end the case against him. Under Italian law, plea bargaining is not an admission of guilt but is subject to approval by a pre-trial judge.

Despite the defeat, PD came out as the single most popular party in Liguria with about 28.5% of the vote, while Meloni's Brothers of Italy garnered around 15%, ahead of its rightwing allies the League and Forza Italia.

Turnout was just under 46%, down from 53.4% in the last regional vote in 2020.

Meloni's bloc currently controls 14 out of 20 Italian regions and has secured a number of wins since she took office, losing to the centre-left opposition only a tight race in the island of Sardinia in February.