Their general allegiances may lie with Matteo Salvini's right-wing League party, but voters in a small town south of Milan have voted against the right-wing League candidate to elect Italy's first transgender mayor.

Gianmarco Negri, a 40-year-old lawyer, was elected mayor of Tromello, a town of 3,700, with 37.5 percent of Sunday's vote for his left-wing civic list. He handily defeated the League's candidate, who finished second in the four-way race with 26 percent.

The victory is especially striking, given that in the European Parliamentary vote at the same time, 53 percent of the votes went for Salvini's League and just 16 percent to the center-left Democratic Party.

Negri, an activist for transgender rights, ran under the slogan: "CambiaMenti per Tromello," which has a double meaning of "Changes for Tromello," or "Changing Minds for Tromello."

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