Centre-right holds seat in Calabria by-election with 22% turnout
Fabio Roscioli will take the vacant seat in Italy's Chamber of Deputies after winning the by-election in the Reggio Calabria-Locri constituency with 51.02% of the vote. The result confirms the centre-right's grip on a seat it already held, despite a high-profile challenge from General Roberto Vannacci's new political movement.
Roscioli, treasurer of Forza Italia and close to the Berlusconi family, defeated Frank Benedetto, the opposition's 'broad field' candidate who finished at 36.59%. Domenico Giannetta, standing for Vannacci's Futuro Nazionale party, took 10.94%, while Francesco Toscano of Democrazia Sovrana e Popolare received 1.44%.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni framed the win as a victory for a coalition that remains "compact, rooted and capable of speaking to the territories," noting it prevailed against what she called the "very broad field of the oppositions." The coalition backing Benedetto had included the Democratic Party, the Five Star Movement, Casa Riformista, Centro Democratico, the Italian Socialist Party, Avs and the Communist Refoundation Party.
What the numbers reveal
The final turnout figure stood at 22.34% when polls closed at 15:00 on Monday, according to the Eligendo official platform. That marked a sharp drop from the 49.40% recorded in the same constituency during the September 2022 general election. However, analysts caution that the comparison distorts the picture.
Lorenzo Pregliasco of the polling firm Youtrend noted that the figure, while low, was in fact the highest recorded for any by-election since Italy's Rosatellum electoral law came into force, surpassing results seen in recent years.
The constituency's electorate totals 345,788 eligible voters, but 58,729 of them are Italians resident abroad and registered with AIRE, the registry of Italians living overseas. These voters do not receive ballots for single-member by-elections and would need to return to Italy in person to cast a vote. When calculated only on those actually able to vote in person — the 287,059 residents in Italy — the effective turnout rises to approximately 26.91%.
Vannacci's first electoral test
The contest drew national attention as the first real-world test for General Roberto Vannacci, the former army officer turned political figure, and his new party. Vannacci had hoped to erode centre-right support and potentially hand victory to the opposition.
Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria Region and deputy national secretary of Forza Italia, declared that the general "wanted his Saxony? In Reggio he took electoral stones," a pointed reference mocking Vannacci's ambitions. The phrase was repeated on stage by Reggio Calabria's mayor, Francesco Cannizzaro, who had resigned the parliamentary seat in May after winning the mayoral race.
Vannacci struck a defiant tone, celebrating what he called breaking through the 10% barrier at his first election under the Futuro Nazionale symbol. "Without ever retreating a millimetre" on his programme's core themes — from re-migration to halting arms shipments to Ukraine — he told supporters: "We have just taken off. You go on thinking about necklines."
Domenico Furgiuele, a deputy for Futuro Nazionale, revealed that he and Giannetta had been given a mission: "Reach at least 8%." That objective, he said, had been met and exceeded.
Opposition voices concern over abstention
Frank Benedetto, a cardiologist who was the only candidate able to vote in his own election — Roscioli resides outside Calabria, while Giannetta and Toscano live in municipalities outside the constituency — conceded defeat and congratulated the winner. But he pointed to what he called the night's most worrying figure. "Abstentionism," Benedetto said. "Too many people chose not to vote, not to believe anymore that their vote can change something."
Polling stations had opened at 07:00 on Sunday across 71 municipalities, covering much of the Ionian coast including Locri, Siderno, Melito Porto Salvo, and the Tyrrhenian stretch through Villa San Giovanni and Scilla.
Roscioli's election restores a legislator to the seat left vacant when Cannizzaro stepped down to become mayor, returning the constituency to its pre-vacancy political alignment.
