Rome - A sweeping local election win for Italy's ruling centre-left coalition has exposed a crisis which is crippling the centre-right Freedom Alliance as an opposition force, analysts said yesterday.
Incumbent mayors from the Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi's Olive Tree coalition, swept the board on Sunday in three of the most important cities - Rome, Naples and Venice. In Naples, Mr Antonio Bassolino won nearly 75 per cent. In Venice, Mr Massimo Cacciari grossed 65 per cent of the vote and in the capital, Mr Francesco Rutelli got 60.7 per cent.
The elections were also a blow to the separatist Northern League, which lost ground in many towns across the north and suffered its biggest rout in Venice, where it picked up barely two per cent.