An anti-euro candidate has triumphed in mayoral runoffs in Italy’s affluent north.

Results Monday of second-round balloting also gave big win to a candidate whose party is one of the few forces in Parliament opposing Premier Mario Monti’s austerity measures.

Results confirmed big losses by the center-right party of media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who stepped down in November to let Monti try to save Italy from financial ruin. Also losing heavily was Berlusconi’s long-time coalition partner, the scandal-tainted Northern League.

Federico Pizzarotti, the candidate of comic Beppe Grillo’s anti-euro populist Five-Star Movement, captured the mayor’s post in Parma. Winning easily in Palermo, Sicily, was Leoluca Orlando, whose Italy of Values party opposes the government’s austerity strategy including new and higher taxes.

Voter turnout was low at just over 50 percent.