An ally of Italian Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi was set to be the next mayor of Rome, putting a right-winger in charge for the first time since the fascists in 1943, early election results showed today.
The results, posted on Rome town hall's Web site from just over half of the polling stations in the city, showed Gianni Alemanno of the right-wing National Alliance party with 52.8 per cent of the ballots in the run-off election.
The party has tried to ditch its fascist roots and become a mainstream conservative force. But Mr Alemanno has come under attack for wearing a Celtic emblem round his neck - a cross surrounded by a ring which is a symbol of the far right in Italy, where a 1993 law compared it to the Nazi swastika.
"Alemanno is happy, calm and confident," said a spokesman for Alemanno. "The more votes that are counted, the wider our lead becomes."
Francesco Rutelli, a former Rome mayor from the centre-left Democratic Party, had 47.2 per cent of the vote.
Victory in Rome would be an unexpected bonus for Mr Berlusconi, whose centre-right overwhelmingly won an April 13-14th national election and already holds power in the financial capital Milan in the north.
Rome, a city of 2.5 million people, has been run by the centre-left for most of the past 30 years and continuously since 1993.
Outgoing mayor Walter Veltroni challenged Mr Berlusconi for the prime ministership but was beaten, like Mr Rutelli in 2001.
Commentators say the loss of Rome would leave the centre-left in disarray after its defeat in the national vote. A small consolation could come from the vote for the province of Rome, where early results put its candidate in front.
With its wealth of archaeological treasures, Renaissance art and churches, Rome attracts millions of tourists every year.
But residents and visitors alike complain about its traffic jams, poor public transport, pot-holed and dirty streets, high housing costs, neglected suburbs and immigrant slums mushrooming on the outskirts.
In the past few months, a string of crimes blamed on immigrants has also gone to the top of the political agenda.
The last days of campaigning for the run-off on Sunday and Monday were dominated by debate on safety after the widely publicised rape of a student from Lesotho on Rome's outskirts on April 17th. A Romanian immigrant has been arrested.
Mr Alemanno (50) has pledged to reinforce law and order and crack down on immigrants.