Venice election turns into test of Meloni’s right-wing cultural revolution – POLITICO

Venice was meant to be the showcase for a right-wing cultural revolution led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, but the center left now fancies its chances of winning the lagoon city’s mayoral election on May 24 and 25.

The vote is being closely watched as the first big electoral test for Meloni’s right-wing coalition since her government’s bruising defeat in a referendum on justice reform in March and will offer clues on whether Italy’s political tides are shifting ahead of a general election next year.

In recent years, the conservative camp turned Venice into a major ideological battleground, seeking to pry elite cultural institutions out of the left’s control and celebrating the appointment of right-wing allies to run the Biennale cultural exhibition and La Fenice opera house. Center-right independent Luigi Brugnaro has led the city for more than a decade.