A centre-Right alliance has snatched the Italian region of Basilicata from 25 years of centre-Left rule, with Matteo Salvini now setting his sights on success at the European Parliament elections.

Basilicata is the fifth successive region that the centre-Right has taken from the Left in recent months, after Sardinia, Molise, Abruzzo and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which borders Austria and Slovenia in Italy’s north-east.

With most of the votes counted, a centre-Right bloc that included Mr Salvini’s League party took 42% of the vote.

The League tripled the number of votes it won in the region, which forms the instep of Italy’s boot, compared with last year’s general election.

The Right’s candidate, retired police general Vito Bardi, will become the new governor of Basilicata, which is chiefly known for Matera, a town where people once lived in cave-like dwellings known as “sassi” and which has been used as a set for many films.

The centre-Left won 33% of votes while the Five Star Movement, which governs at national level in coalition with the League, took 20% - less than half the votes it won in the region during the general election a year ago.

Former police general Vito Bardi, centre, will be the new governor of Basilicata credit: Tony Vece/Ansa

The Right’s win is likely to exacerbate tension between the League and Five Star within the national government, amid speculation in the Italian media that it could collapse by the end of the year.

Mr Salvini’s provocative rhetoric on law and order and closure of Italy’s ports to migrant rescue ships has been widely criticised by humanitarian organisations and opposition MPs.

His citation of quotes by Mussolini and Ezra Pound, a notorious American fascist, has raised fears of a dangerous drift towards the far-Right.

He took to social media on Monday to celebrate the win in Basilicata.

“The League has tripled its vote in a year. Goodbye to the Left, now Europe is going to change,” he said in reference to the European Parliament elections at the end of May.

Basilicata is known for the ancient town of Matera where people once lived a troglodyte existence in 'sassi' or cave dwellings credit: Getty

His party’s success was striking given that its traditional support base is in northern Italy, where it once campaigned for secession from a south that it regarded as indolent, corrupt and rife with Mafia criminality.

In January, Mr Salvini pledged to bring about a “new European spring” by working with nationalist and populist parties across the continent.

The stage is set for a showdown with the EU establishment at the European Parliament elections, with figures like Mr Salvini and Viktor Orban of Hungary cast against the likes of President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

Five Star was the only party that did not run as part of an alliance in Basilicata and looked set to be the individual party with the most votes.

“The Five Star Movement is the top political party in Basilicata,” said Luigi Di Maio, the movement’s head, who is also deputy prime minister and labour minister. “We beat all the other lists.”

Basilicata had been a stronghold of the centre-Left since 1995 and its loss was a blow to the Democratic Party, which has seen its support eroded since last year’s general election.

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