Emilia Romagna says 'No' to right wing Salvini

The "Red Region" as Emilia Romagna was traditionally known, dealt a blow to right wing politician Matteo Salvini.

Right wing politician Matteo Salvini was dealt quite a blow in the region of Emilia-Romagna, which has a deep tradition of voting for communist and leftist parties.

Salvini had bet on taking over the left stronghold as a final stabbing to the uncapable of making a united front to beat off the right threat. However, the people of Emilia Romagna responded en masse and left Salvini with a sour taste in his mouth. 

Centre-left candidate Stefano Bonaccini, had beaten his center-right opponent, Lucia Borgonzoni, by a margin of around five percentage points.

"Today Matteo Salvini has lost the election," Nicola Zingaretti, leader of the Democratic Party, said thanking the movement of the "Sardines" for the victory.

The usually confident Mr. Salvini sounded remarkably low key in a late-night news conference, calling himself proud of his party’s performance and insisting he would work “twice as hard” going forward.

Calabria in the hands of the right

The candidate backed by Mr. Salvini won in the southern region of Calabria despite the fact that, for decades, Mr. Salvini’s party, formerly known as the Northern League, vilified the southern regions as lazy leaches on the wealthy and hard-working north.

However, since adopting a nationalist message and national strategy, Mr. Salvini has campaigned vigorously in the south. The center-right candidate Jole Santelli, whom he supported, was poised to take more than half of the vote there.