Runoff elections began in numerous Italian cities on Sunday trying to determine who their next mayors will be, including the capital city of Rome, where Enrico Michetti of the center-right and Roberto Gualtieri of the center-left battle it out in a political contrast emblematic of the political sphere in Italy and Europe as a whole.
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In the first round of voting Michetti garnered 30.14% of the vote, leading slightly over Gualtieri's 27.03%. This set the stage for an equally uncertain runoff round which takes place after endorsements for Gualtieri from fellow candidate Carlo Calenda and former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. It also dealt a severe blow to prominent populist movement 5 Stars, as their candidate and current mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi trailed badly and was eliminated in the first round.
The second round of voting comes also after right-wing candidate Michetti issued his apologies for antisemitic comments he had written in an article last year, where he made the suggestion that victims of other mass murders get less attention than the Holocaust because they "did not own banks".
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