Italy's right-wing, led by Meloni, wins election
Giorgia Meloni, head of the nationalist Brothers of Italy party, said on Monday that Italian voters had given a clear mandate to the right to form the next government and called for unity to help confront the country's many problems.
Provisional results from Sunday's general election showed Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) group topping the polls with almost 26% of the vote, propelling an alliance of right-wing parties to clear majorities in both houses of parliament.
At the last general election in 2018, FdI won just 4.3%.
As head of the largest single party, Meloni will almost certainly get the nod from the head of state to form a new government and is also likely to become Italy's first woman prime minister and face a daunting array of problems, including surging energy prices and war in Ukraine.
Meloni, 45, plays down her party's post-fascist roots and portrays it as a mainstream conservative group. She has pledged to support Western policy on Ukraine and not take undue risks with the third largest economy in the eurozone.
"When this night is over, we must remember that we are not at the endpoint, we are at the starting point. It is from tomorrow that we must prove our worth," Meloni told the party faithful early Monday morning.
The rapid rise in her fortunes is intricately tied to the transformation of Brothers of Italy, which has moved out of the shadows and into the mainstream without ever entirely repudiating its post-fascist roots.
Friends and critics alike say the surge in support is mainly due to the steely determination of Meloni, who won her first local election at 21 and became Italy's youngest ever minister when, at the age of 31, she was given the youth portfolio in Berlusconi's 2008 government.
An exit poll for Italy's SKY said the bloc of conservative parties, which also includes Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, won over 40%, enough to guarantee control of both houses of parliament.
Italy's electoral law favours groups that manage to create pre-ballot pacts, giving them an excessive number of seats by comparison with their vote tally.
Full results are expected by early Monday.
Italy's first autumn national election in over a century was triggered by party infighting that brought down Prime Minister Mario Draghi's broad national unity government in July.
Italy has a history of political instability. The next prime minister will lead the country's 68th government since 1946 and face a host of challenges, notably soaring energy costs and growing economic headwinds.
The outcome of the vote was also being watched nervously in European capitals and on financial markets, given the desire to preserve unity in dealings with Russia and concerns over Italy's daunting debt mountain.
The new, slimmed-down parliament will not meet until Oct. 13, at which point the head of state will summon party leaders and decide on the shape of the new government.
Italians expressed a deep feeling of uncertainty in the early hours of Monday shortly after exit polls projected the right-wing coalition's win in the country's national election.
'It seems that the centre-right won over the centre-left. An uncertain future awaits us.’, said Rome resident Silvia Zacchi.
Reuters
