“It's definitely a defeat for us. Losing Rome and Turin is a blow, it's painful,” Matteo Orfini, president of the Democratic Party (PD), said in an interview with La Stampa daily.
The city elections have been a closely-watched barometer of Italian politics.
Renzi's political strength has weakened in recent months. Rome in particular is seen by some analysts as a springboard for general elections due in 2018.
Sunday's polls saw the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) sweep to power in the capital and in the northern industrial city of Turin.
Virginia Raggi, 37, was elected as Rome's first female mayor, trouncing the PD candidate, Roberto Giachetti, in a 67-to-33 percent share of the vote.
The anti-establishment M5S also claimed control of Turin, where another woman, Chiara Appendino, 31, took 54.56 percent, ousting the long-serving mayor, Piero Fassino, a PD heavyweight.
The PD had some satisfaction by winning in Milan, Italy's principal economic hub, against a centre-right opponent.
Orfini said the results from the various cities bore out M5S's tactics, of forging local alliances with rightwing or far-right candidates to gain the votes of their supporters for the second round of voting.
The PD's leadership is to meet on Friday to analyse the outcome of the elections, Orfini said.
POLITICS
Italy’s ruling party says Rome defeat was ‘painful’ blow
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's party on Monday said the outcome of municipal elections was a "painful" blow after Italy's populist movement notched up spectacular gains.
EU
Italy’s Meloni hopes EU ‘understands message’ from voters
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Saturday she hoped the European Union would understand the "message" sent by voters in last weekend's elections, after far-right parties such as hers made gains.
Meloni, head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, which performed particularly well in the vote, urged the EU to “understand the message that has come from European citizens”.
“Because if we want to draw lessons from the vote that everything was fine, I fear it would be a slightly distorted reading,” she told a press conference at the end of a G7 summit in Puglia.
“European citizens are calling for pragmatism, they are calling for an approach that is much less ideological on several major issues,” she said.
Meloni’s right-wing government coalition has vehemently opposed the European Green Deal and wants a harder stance on migration.
“Citizens vote for a reason. It seems to me that a message has arrived, and it has arrived clearly,” she said.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Monday to negotiate the top jobs, including whether European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will get a second term.
Von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party strengthened its grip with the vote, but her reconfirmation is not yet in the bag.
The 65-year-old conservative was in Puglia for the G7 and likely used the summit to put her case to the leaders of France, Germany and Italy.
But Meloni refused to be drawn on whom she is backing.
“We will have a meeting on Monday, we’ll see,” she told journalists.
“We will also see what the evaluations will be on the other top roles,” she said.
Italian political watchers say Meloni is expected to back von der Leyen, but is unlikely to confirm that openly until Rome locks in a deal on commissioner jobs.
“What interests me is that… Italy is recognised for the role it deserves,” she said.
“I will then make my assessments.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani indicated that it was unlikely any decision would be made before the French elections on June 30 and July 7.
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