Italy’s regional voters thwart hopes of right-wing forces

ROME (AP) — Italian voters have 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. Nearly complete results Monday for the governorship of the prosperous Emilia-Romagna region had his League party candidate winning only 43.7 % support to the 51.4% garnered by the incumbent governor from the center-left Democrats. The Democrats are in Italy’s national coalition government led by Premier Giuseppe Conte. But the big loser in that regional vote was the populist 5-Star Movement, which is Conte’s main coalition partner, which took only 3.5% of the ballots cast on Sunday.