Gianmarco Negri, 40, has been elected mayor of Tromello, a small town south of Milan, Italy - becoming the first transgender person to be elected Mayor in the country.
The left-wing lawyer won 37.5 per cent of the vote in the town of 3,700, a particularly striking victory, according to , because of the town's general allegiance with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's right-wing League party.
The League party's candidate finished second in the four-way race, earning 26 per cent of the vote.
Negri, who considers himself an activist for transgender rights, ran under the slogan: “CambiaMenti per Tromello,” which, according to Market Watch, can mean both “Changes for Tromello” and “Changing Minds for Tromello”.
His rise as the Mayor of a right-leaning town under a conservative national government is not dissimilar to that of Mayor Pete Buttigieg in South Bend, Indiana.
Meanwhile, a triumphant Deputy PM Matteo Salvini, 46, took to social media to share a photograph of himself holding a "thank you" sign. On the bookshelf behind him is a Make America Great Again baseball cap and a photograph of Vladimir Putin.
Salvini's hard-right League party won 34 per cent of the vote in Italy, doubling the party's previous election effort of 17 per cent, winning the party 28 of Italy’s 73 seats in the EU parliament.
