Ferdinando Giugliano, Columnist

What Salvini's Setback Means for Italy

It would be foolish to rule out the League. Emilia-Romagna was an ambitious target and Five Star’s implosion makes the coalition ever more fragile.

January 27, 2020 at 9:31 AM UTC

By Ferdinando Giugliano

Ferdinando Giugliano is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was previously a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times.

Tasting defeat.
Photographer: Ettore Ferrari/ANSA

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In the end, Italy’s red wall held up against Matteo Salvini’s assault.

The leader of the right-wing League had hoped to score a famous win in a regional election in Emilia-Romagna, an area with strong leftist traditions. Voters thought otherwise: Stefano Bonaccini, the incumbent Democratic Party governor, won convincingly on Sunday against his opponent, Lucia Borgonzoni. The populist Five Star Movement collapsed to less than 5%.