Civic Commitment (IC) leader and
outgoing Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has failed to gain
re-election to the Italian parliament in his home Naples
constituency, according to near-final results Monday.
Di Maio, a former leader of the populist 5-Star Movement (M5S)
who left the M5S to form IC (also known as Together for the
Future (IpF) in June, had garnered 24.3% of the vote after 403
of 440 polling stations had reported in the Naples Fuorigrotta
constituency where he was returned with a massive majority in
2018.
The M5S's candidate, former environment minister Sergio Costa,
has a clear lead on 40.5% of the vote so far.
Centre right canidate Maria Rosaria Rossi was third on 22.2%
while Azione and 'third pole' candidate Mara Carfagna, another
native Campanian, was fourth on 6.7%.
According to anecdotal data gathered after an opinion poll
blackout over two weeks ago, the M5S made a late surge in the
election campaign, especially in the south, thanks to its
insistence on retaining its flagship citizenship wage basic
income unemployment benefit.
Likely next premier Giorgia Meloni of the rightwing Brothers of
Italy (FdI) party, which has apparently won the election, has
vowed to scrap it.
IC/IpF has failed to get into parliament with less than 1% of
the vote according to projections.
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