Italian voters took a sharp turn, rewarding a party with neo-fascist roots and bolstering the possibility that the country could have its first far-right government since World War II, according to preliminary parliamentary election results released on Monday. .
In her triumphant speech, right-wing Giorgia Meloni kept a moderate tone after preliminary results from national elections on Sunday showed her Brothers of Italy party leading the pack.
“If we are called to govern this nation, we will do it for everyone, we will do it for all Italians, and we will do it with the aim of uniting the people (of this country),” Meloni said, speaking from the offices of the party in Rome.
“Italy chose us,” he added. “We will not betray (the country), as we have never done before.”
After exit polls during Sunday’s vote indicated that she was the likely winner, Meloni has softened her far-right message in an apparent attempt to reassure the European Union and other international allies.
“It is time to be responsible,” he said in a live television presentation, describing the situation in Italy and the European Union as “particularly complex.”
Putting together a ruling coalition with the help of the party’s right-wing allies could take several weeks. If Meloni, 45, succeeds, she would become the first woman to rule the country. The president of Italy is required to issue an order to attempt to form a government.
He thanked his main campaign allies and likely essential partners in shaping a government: Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, an anti-immigration party, and conservative-leaning former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Salvini, who was running for prime minister, was apparently headed for a landslide defeat in the election.
Projections based on the votes counted in almost two-thirds of the polling stations indicated that Meloni’s party would obtain around 25.7% of the vote.
His closest pursuer, the Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Enrico Letta, would get about 19.3%. Salvini’s League would be around 8.6% of the vote, practically half of what it obtained in the 2018 elections.
The projections on the Italian state television have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
Meloni’s strong performance encouraged his allies on the continent, who are determined to tilt the European Union’s policies to the right.
Other wary EU politicians were some of the first to celebrate: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki congratulated Meloni via Twitter, and French political party Marine Le Pen also hailed the result, calling it a “lesson in humility.” for the EU.
Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s right-wing Vox party, celebrated Meloni’s advantage, tweeting that “millions of Europeans have their hopes pinned on Italy.” Meloni “has shown the way for a Europe that is proud, free and of sovereign nations, capable of cooperate for the security and prosperity of all.
Meloni’s meteoric rise in the European Union’s third-largest economy comes at a crucial time when much of the continent is struggling with high energy prices, a consequence of the war in Ukraine, and when the determination from the West