This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/06/five-star-candidate-takes-large-lead-in-rome-mayor-first-round-voting

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Five Star candidate takes big lead in Rome's mayoral election Five Star candidate takes big lead in Rome's mayoral election
(about 11 hours later)
Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement took a large lead in the first round of voting for the mayor of Rome, according to exit polls published on Sunday, in a possible blow to the prime minister, Matteo Renzi. Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement has a large lead in the first round of voting for the mayor of Rome, piling pressure on the prime minister, Matteo Renzi, ahead of his career-defining reform referendum due in about four months.
Related: Italy goes to the polls in mayoral elections for largest cities The Five Star Movement, campaigning hard against corruption, also made gains in other Italian cities in Sunday’s voting, echoing the rise of anti-establishment parties across Europe.
Around 13 million people, or a quarter of the adult population, were eligible to vote for mayors in around 1,300 towns and cities, with attention focused firmly on a handful of major centres, including the capital. With more than 80% of voting districts counted, the Five Star candidate in Rome, Virginia Raggi, led with about 36% of the vote, ahead of the candidate from Renzi’s centre-left Democratic party (PD) with almost 25%.
Victory in Rome would be a huge breakthrough for Five Star, which was founded in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo, and hopes to capitalise on anger over corruption scandals that have embroiled both left and right-wing parties in the city. Raggi and the PD’s candidate, Roberto Giachetti, now head to a run-off vote on 19 June.
The Five Star candidate in Rome, Virginia Raggi, was likely to win 33-37% of the vote, according to the EMG pollster, followed by the centre-left’s Roberto Giachetti, who is backed by Renzi and was predicted to win 22-26%. “The wind is changing, this is the moment,” Raggi told her supporters in the early hours of Monday. “We are facing a historic moment,” the 37-year-old lawyer added. “The Romans are ready to turn a page and I am ready to govern this city and to restore Rome to the splendour and beauty that it deserves.”
According to the Piepoli Institute, Raggi was likely to win 34-38%, compared with 20-24% for Giachetti.
If, as polls suggest, no one wins more than 50%, run-offs between the top two candidates will be held on 19 June.
A victory for Raggi would make her Rome’s first woman mayor.
Related: Corruption gripes help Five Star Movement top Italy local election pollsRelated: Corruption gripes help Five Star Movement top Italy local election polls
The race looked closer in Italy’s financial capital, Milan, where EMG had centre-left candidate Giuseppe Sala ahead with 38-42%, followed by the centre-right’s Stefano Parisi with 36.5-40.5%. The Piepoli Institute gave Sala 41-45% and gave 35-39% to Parisi. The first-round results were a clear setback for Renzi, who has staked his political future on a referendum in October over a contested constitutional reform, which is aimed at bringing stability to politics and end Italy’s tradition of revolving-door governments.
Renzi, whose popularity has sagged over the last year, has distanced himself from the mayoral elections, arguing that they reflected local issues and would have no repercussions for his coalition government. The 41-year-old prime minister has said he will stand down if he loses the referendum, a gamble that could usher in a new era of political chaos and revive market turbulence in the eurozone’s third-largest economy.
Instead he has tried to focus attention on a referendum in October on an overhaul of the constitution, saying he will resign if Italians reject his plan to reduce the powers of the senate and streamline lawmaking procedures in parliament. Unlike other non-traditional parties which have flourished across Europe since the 2008 financial crisis, the Five Star Movement straddles ideological divides, focusing its anger on rampant graft in Italy more than austerity or immigration.
Exit polls have often proved unreliable in Italy. Early projections based on the actual vote count are expected in the coming hours. Victory in Rome, which has been battered by corruption scandals, would represent a major step forward for the party, which was founded in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo.
In the other main cities, exit polls suggested that in Turin the incumbent mayor Piero Fassino, of Renzi’s PD party, was ahead, but by less than had been expected, and was likely to face a tough race in the run-off against a Five Star candidate. Success in governing the Eternal City could prove a springboard to winning power in general elections that are due in 2018, but could come earlier depending on the outcome of the referendum.
Naples looked set to be held by leftist incumbent Luigi de Magistris, an independent former prosecutor who has declared the city a “Renzi-free zone”. A runoff is projected against the centre-right candidate who was seen in second place. Renzi played little part in the municipal election campaign until the final week, saying the vote reflected local concerns not national interests, and promising it would have no impact on his government.
Raggi will be the city’s first female mayor if she wins the run-off vote on 19 June, and promises to crackdown on corruption, cronyism and everyday illegality such as fare-dodging and double-parking that have become the norm in dilapidated Rome.
The city’s previous mayor came from the PD and was forced out in October after a scandal over his dining expenses.
That affair left Renzi with a mountain to climb in Rome, but he had hopes of a clear victory in Milan, where he handpicked the PD candidate, Giuseppe Sala, who headed last year’s successful Expo World Fair in Italy’s financial capital.
Instead, with the vote count almost final in Milan, Sala took 42% of the vote, less than a percentage point more than centre-right candidate Stefano Parisi, leaving the two to square off again in two weeks’ time.
In Turin, historical home of Fiat, the incumbent centre-left mayor, Piero Fassino, led the field with 42%, but will have a tough second round against Five Star candidate Chiara Appendino, who got 31%.
In Naples, leftist incumbent Luigi de Magistris, an independent former prosecutor who has declared the city a “Renzi-free zone”, won 42% in the first round and will be challenged by a centre-right candidate in the run-off.
In Bologna, a traditional centre-left stronghold, the PD-backed candidate won about 40%, less than expected, and will face a rightwing candidate in the run-off.