Italy's new centre-left government was buoyed on Tuesday after local election results showed it had swept most of the big cities up for grabs in local elections including Rome, Naples and Turin.
Of the 23 major cities involved in the two-day vote, the centre left won 14 outright to the centre right's four while run-off ballots will be held in the five where no candidate managed to exceed 50%.
Centre-left mayors in Rome, Turin and Naples all won second terms with ease while the centre right managed to retain its Milan stronghold but by a much smaller margin than expected. The voting also involved eight provincial governments
with five going to the centre left - one more than during previous voting in 2001 - and three to the centre right.
The centre right's main victory was in Sicily, where incumbent regional government chief Salvatore Cuffaro won a second term despite being on trial on Mafia-linked charges.
The overall results were a much-needed boost for Premier Romano Prodi who won the narrowest of victories against previous premier Silvio Berlusconi at the polls last month. Italy was depicted as a country "split in two" after the April election, which was the closest in Italian postwar history and hinged on just 25,000 votes in the House and the surprise outcome of voting from Italians abroad.
Berlusconi has repeatedly contested the vote outcome, saying "irregularities" cheated him of victory. He threw himself into the local election campaigning, leading his Forza Italia party slate in Milan and Naples and billing the vote as a "rematch" and a chance for "revenge".
Prodi said on Monday as results began trickling in that he was "very pleased".
"Up until now, the figures seem to show that it went well. If this is the rematch, then we're ready for plenty more," he said.
"Apart from Milan, the most important other cities are all in our hands," the former European Commission chief said. Political analysts said the vote outcome could help support Prodi, who faces unpopular decisions in his bid to consolidate Italy's deteriorating public accounts.
Some 20 million voters - more than a third of the electorate - were eligible to take part in the two-day balloting which ended at 15.00 local time on Monday and came little more than six weeks after the general election. Voting took place in some 1,260 towns and cities and eight provinces - Mantua, Pavia, Treviso, Imperia, Ravenna, Lucca, Campobasso and Reggio Calabria - as well as across Sicily.
Turnout was lower than expected, amounting to 71.2% in the municipal races compared to 80.6% in 2001, 59.6% in the
provincial government ballots compared to 83.5% in 2001 and 59.17% in Sicily compared to 63.4% in 2001. The spotlight was on the mayoral races in Italy's four biggest cities, Rome, Milan, Turin and Naples, as well as the Sicilian vote.
In Rome, incumbent centre-left Mayor Walter Veltroni won a second term with almost 61.4%, defeating his main rival, former agriculture minister Giovanni Alemanno. In Turin, sitting Mayor Sergio Chiamparino of the centre left was reconfirmed with an impressive 66.6% against the 29.5% gained by former culture minister Rocco Buttiglione, a centrist Catholic who made international headlines in 2004 by describing homosexuality as a "sin".
The centre right also failed in its bid to unseat Naples Mayor Rosa Russo Jervolino, who bagged 57.1% to the 37.8% of Franco Malvano, the city's former police chief and Forza Italia senator.
The duel in the financial capital of Milan between former education minister Letizia Moratti for the centre right and ex-Milan prefect Bruno Ferrante for the centre left was closer than expected. Moratti won with 52% to Ferrante's 47% while Berlusconi was lifted by the performance of Forza Italia which took more than 30% of the vote.
Another key victory for the centre right was in Sicily, where centrist, Catholic Cuffaro remained in the saddle with 53%, beating centre-left candidate Rita Borsellino. Borsellino is the sister of Paolo Borsellino, an anti-mob prosecutor slain by the Mafia in 1992.
Run-off municipal ballots will be held in two weeks' time in more than 80 towns and cities including five provincial capitals.
