Right-wing parties triumphed in a regional election in central Italy on Monday in a contest seen as a key test for the European Parliament elections in May.

A candidate from Brothers of Italy, a small far-Right party backed by the Right-wing League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, won the election in the mountainous Abruzzo region.

After taking around 48 per cent of the vote, Marco Marsilio was elected the new governor of the region, ousting a centre-Left coalition.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which governs with The League at the national level, performed dismally, winning just 20 per cent of votes – half of what it garnered in the region during last year’s general election.

The result will inflame worries within Five Star that it has been eclipsed since forming a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s League last June.

Since then, the pugnacious interior minister has doubled his party’s electoral support while that of Five Star has declined.