ROME - Italian voters thwarted right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini’s hopes of turning an election in a key northern region into a springboard for regaining national power , with the centre-left holding on to a crucial longtime stronghold. The Democrats are the junior coalition partner in a wobbly national coalition government led by Premier Giuseppe Conte. Humiliated in that regional vote was the populist 5-Star Movement, which is Conte’s main coalition partner. The 5-Stars, the largest party in Italy’s national Parliament, tanked at some 3.5% of the vote. Determined that Emilia-Romagna would be key to a return to national power, Salvini had campaigned incessantly in there, practically eclipsing his own candidate’s visibility.

Source: thestar January 27, 2020 09:33 UTC