Left-wing hammer thrower delivers blow to Meloni

Telegraph

27-05-2025

A former Olympic hammer thrower has delivered a blow to Giorgia Meloni 's coalition after triumphing in elections that are being seen as a barometer of the Right-wing government's popularity.
Silvia Salis, who competed at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and London 2012 and who sports a tattoo of the Olympic rings on her neck, carried the centre-Left to victory in Genoa, winning the mayorship of one of Italy's largest cities.
Ms Salis, 39, who was backed by the centre-Left Democratic Party, was elected in the gritty port city with 52 per cent of the vote, triumphing over her centre-Right opponent, who took 44 per cent of votes.
After winning 10 Italian hammer throwing titles and competing in the Olympics, finishing 42nd with a throw of 62.28m in Beijing, she forged a career in sports management and was appointed to a senior position on Italy's Olympic Committee.
She is married to Fausto Brizzi, a well-known Italian film director, with whom she has a young daughter.
The vote in Genoa was the most important of 126 elections that were held in villages, towns and cities across the country.
Two million Italians were eligible to vote on Sunday and Monday in what was widely seen as a test of Ms Meloni's coalition, two and a half years after she was elected Italy's first female prime minister.
Italy's Left, which had struggled to gain traction since Ms Meloni came to power, was exultant.
One key reason for its success in Genoa was that the Democratic Party allied with the populist Five Star Movement, putting aside previously fractious relations.
'The case of Genova has shown that the Right only performs well when the progressive camp fails to unite,' Ms Salis told La Stampa newspaper.
She said she wanted to use her five-year mandate to attract major sporting events to Genoa but also to improve basic services such as schools, homes for the elderly and road maintenance.
'Giorgia Meloni has received a slap. The enchanted spell is over,' said Matteo Renzi, a centre-Left former prime minister.
Elly Schlein, the leader of the Democratic Party, celebrated the fact that the Left had also triumphed in elections in Assisi, in Umbria, and Ravenna, on the Adriatic coast.
Two other key cities – Taranto and Matera in the deep south – will go to a run-off vote next month after the initial round was inconclusive.
Ms Schlein said that while the Right was preoccupied with opinion polls, 'we win the elections'. She said the Left had 'clearly come out on top'.
The government insisted, however, that the victory in Genoa was fought on local issues and personalities and claimed it would have little bearing on national politics.
Ms Meloni continues to enjoy relatively high approval ratings.
The latest polls suggest her Right-wing Brothers of Italy party would win 30 per cent of votes if elections were held now.
Her two coalition parties, the League and Forza Italia, would together pull in 16 per cent of the vote, giving the coalition a clear lead over the Left at the national level.
For both sides of politics, the elections in Genoa and elsewhere are being seen as a dry run for regional votes in the autumn, when they will go head-to-head in Puglia, Campania, Tuscany and the Veneto