Italy's centre right led by Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday hailed local election results from the weekend where it made a much stronger showing than elections for the European Parliament.
''Berlusconi is in an excellent mood,'' said Cabinet Secretary Paolo Bonaiuti after Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party (PdL) and its ally the Northern League more than doubled their tally of provinces from 12 to 26 and the centre left saw their total plummet from 50 to 14.
The PdL and League took 15 provinces away from the centre left, which now also faces 22 run-off elections in provinces it previously governed.
''This is proof that when voters vote on things that matter to them daily, and not Europe, the Left collapses,'' Bonaiuti claimed.
''It is a great result,'' he said, noting that the centre left had been forced into run-offs in many parts of the central Italian 'Red Belt' it has ruled since WWII.
There was no immediate comment Tuesday from Dario Franceschini, leader of the largest opposition party, the Democratic Left (PD).
But PD grandee and former premier Massimo D'Alema said he was ''confident'' about the run-offs.
The biggest prizes for the centre right were taking the provinces of Naples and Piacenza away from the centre left and forcing it into run-off votes in the provinces of Milan, Venice, Turin, Ferrara and Arezzo.
Municipal elections in provincial capitals saw the centre right take Biella, Bergamo, Verbania, Pavia, Pescara and Campobasso away from the centre left and force run-off votes in such centre-left strongholds as Florence, Bologna, Prato, Ancona and Ascoli Piceno.
The only city where the incumbent centre right was forced into a run-off was Brindisi.
Franceschini had been much more vocal on Monday, as the EP results came in.
He said the PD had defied recent polls in the EP vote, sinking only to 26% from 33% in last year's general election.
The PdL meanwhile saw its support drop from 37% to 35%, far from the 45% target set by Berlusconi.
Pundits said both of the major parties had been hit by 'friendly fire' from smaller but feistier allies.
Graftbuster Antonio Di Pietro's Italy of Values, the PD's unruly ally, rose to 8% from 4.4% last year.
The League, identified by many voters as the driving force behind a crackdown on crime and illegal immigration, increased its share from 8.3% to 10.2%.
