An exit poll for state broadcaster Rai has confirmed predictions that centre right candidate and former Red Cross chief Francesco Rocca is set to easily win Lazio in regional elections.
Rocca has a range of 50.5 per cent to 54.5 per cent in the poll by the Consorzio Opinio Italia.
He is followed by centre left candidate and former health councillor Alessio D'Amato on 30 per cent to 34 per cent, and in third place the left-leaning and populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) candidate, Donatella Bianchi, on 10.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent.
Projections confirmed the exit poll with Rocca at 52.1 per cent and D'Amato on 34.7 per cent.
The second exit poll said centre right candidate and incumbent governor Attilio Fontana is set to win Lombardy just as easily.
Fontana was given a range of 49.5 per cent to 53.5 per cent by the Consorzio Opinio Italia polling agency.
Francesco Majorino of the combined centre left and 5-Star Movement (M5S) was set to pull 33 per cent to 37 per cent, while the third pole's Letizia Moratti was given 9.5 per cent to13.5 per cent.
This was confirmed by the projection which gave Fontana 54.4 per cent ahead of Majorino on 33.6 per cent and Moratti on 10.1 per cent.
Lazio and Lombardy, Italy's two most populous regions had the centre right candidates as hot favourites in both races due to continuing splits on the centre left - the main reason Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing alliance came to power in the September 25 general election.
Back then, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) failed to form an alliance either with the left-leaning and formerly populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) or the centrist 'third pole' of Italia Viva (IV) and Azione (Az), leaving the field open to Meloni's coalition of her rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI), former anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini's rightwing League party, and three-time former premier Silvio Berluscioni's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
Things were marginally better for the centre left in these two regional votes as the PD managed to team up with the M5S in Lombardy and with IV-Az in Lazio, but in neither region were the three centre-left parties running together, making the centre-right alliance of FdI, League and FI again by far the bookies' favourites to win the regional government and the governerships.
In Lazio, former Red Cross chief Rocca led the centre right against the centre left's D'Amato, former PD health councillor, who had been bidding to extend the PD's 10-year tenure of power in the region around Rome in a coalition backed by the PD and the third pole.
In Lombardy, long-time incumbent governor Fontana of the League wanted to extend the decades-long rightwing lock on power in the region around Milan, against PD candidate and former Milan city social policy councillor Majorino, who was backed by the PD and the M5S.
Voters were slow to the polls, which opened at 7am on Sunday and closed at 3pm on Monday, and turnout was about half that of last time.
The final turnout figures in the 1882 municipalities voting for the regional elections in Lombardy and Lazio confirmed a sharp drop in participation .
According to definitive data published on the interior ministry (Viminale) website, in Lombardy (1504 municipalities out of 1504) the turnout is 41.67 per cent (in 2018 it was 73.11). In Lazio (378 municipalities out of 378) it is 37.2 per cent (66.55 per cent).
The exit polls are expected to be accurate and confirmed by projections and actual results.
In the meantime, Salvini, the League leader, hailed the victories saying "thank you Lombardy, thank you Lazio".
FI No 2 and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said "it's a vote of confidence in the government".
Meloni said the regional election wins in Lazio and Lombardy consolidate the centre right and boost the government.
"Congratulations to Francesco Rocca and Attilio Fontana for their clear victory in these regional elections, sure that both will give their best to honour the vote and the mandate received from the citizens of Lazio and Lombardy," she said.
"An important and significant result that consolidates the unity of the centre-right and strengthens the work of the government."
Fontana said after winning the regional elections Monday that the result showed the citizens of Lombardy had understood his government's work over the past few years.
"The first feeling is joy for the people of Lombardy who have understood our work," encumbent Lombardy Governor Fontana, whose election looks a certainty according to projections, said.
A trend seen in last year's general election was projected to continue in the Lombardy regional election on Monday with the surging rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party of Meloni set to get 25.6 per cent of the vote against 16 per cent of the League, which had long been the dominant force in the region, according to a Rai projection.
An examination of the party lists in Lazio, according to Opinio Rai projections with an 18 per cent sample, showed FdI at 31.2 per cent, followed by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) at 20.9 per cent and the M5S at 9.9 per cent. They are followed by Forza Italia at 8.7 per cent, the League at 8.6 per cent and Azione-Italia Viva at 4.9 per cent.
Outgoing PD leader Enrico Letta said the regional election results showed that an alleged 'takeover bid' against the PD by the leftwing 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centrist 'Third Pole' had failed and "hurt those who attempted it".
"The PD firmly remains the second political force (behind Premier Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy) and the top opposition party", he said.
M5S leader and former premier Giuseppe Conte had been eyeing surpassing the PD share of the vote to mirror recent polling.
ANSA
