Italy moves to the right, as Meloni’s coalition set for clear victory

Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy’s elections, after exit polls gave her right-wing coalition a clear majority, putting her on course to create the most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.

The Fratelli d’Italia leader is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister with over 26% of the vote, having absorbed votes from the right-wing Lega and Forza Italia, as well as the populist Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) since 2018.

According to the Consorzio Opinio Italia poll for Rai, the rightwing coalition has won between 41-45% of the vote and the left alliance 25-29.%. That would give the right a majority in both houses. The populist M5S was on 13.5%-17.5%.

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Meloni’s party, whose neofascist origins can be traced to the Movimento Sociale Italiano, is expected to rule in a coalition which includes the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia, headed by TV magnate Silvio Berlusconi.

“This is a night of pride for Brothers of Italy, but it is a starting point, not a finish line,” she said to a crowd of supporters.

“If we are called upon to govern this nation, we will do so for all Italians, with the aim of uniting the people, of exalting what unites them rather than what divides them,” Meloni told reporters. “We will not betray your trust.”

“This is the time for being responsible,” Meloni said, appearing on live on television and describing the situation for Italy and the European Union is “particularly complex.”

Italy’s main centre-left group, the Democratic Party (PD), conceded defeat.

“This is a sad evening for the country,” Debora Serracchiani, a senior PD lawmaker, told reporters in the party’s first official comment on the result. “(The right) has the majority in parliament, but not in the country.”

Marco Marsilio, Brothers of Italy’s president of the central Abruzzo region, said he had been waiting for this moment all his life. “Twenty or 30 years ago this sounded like madness, let’s hope God forgives us for this madness,” he told Reuters.

On Ukraine, Meloni has condemned Russia’s invasion and supported sending weapons to the war-torn country, but it remains unclear whether her government will back the eighth round of EU sanctions being discussed in Brussels. Salvini has claimed the sanctions were bringing Italy to its knees, although he never blocked any EU measures against Russia when in Mario Draghi’s broad coalition government, which collapsed in July.