Key Points
- Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni came top in Italian elections on Sunday, the first exit polls suggested.
- She is looking likely to lead Italy's most far-right government since the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini.
Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, whose party came top in general elections, said Monday she would seek to lead the next government and would work for all Italians.
Ms Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, has never held office but looks set to form Italy's most far-right government since the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini during World War Two.
"Italians have sent a clear message in favour of a right-wing government led by Brothers of Italy," she told reporters in Rome, adding that "we will do it for all" Italians.
Projections published by the Rai public broadcaster and Quorum/YouTrend both put Brothers of Italy on top, at between 24 and 26 per cent of the vote, with Ms Meloni favourite to become her country's first female prime minister.
Her allies, Matteo Salvini's far-right League and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, lagged behind. But the coalition was forecast to win around 43 percent, enough to secure a majority in both houses of parliament.
The result must still be confirmed but risks fresh trouble for the European Union, just weeks after the far-right outperformed in elections in Sweden.
Ms Meloni, who campaigned on a motto of "God, country and family", has abandoned her calls for one of Europe's biggest economies to leave the Eurozone, but says Rome must assert its interests more in Brussels.
"Today you can participate in writing history," the 45-year-old tweeted before the polls closed.
Giorgia Meloni casts her vote at a polling station in Italy, where she is headed to become the next prime minister. Source: AAP / Massimo Percossi
Turnout was lower than in the 2018 elections, at around 64 per cent, down from 73 per cent.
Ms Meloni had been leading opinion polls since Prime Minister Mario Draghi called snap elections in July following the collapse of his national unity government.
Hers was the only party not to join Mr Draghi's coalition when, in February 2021, the former European Central Bank chief was parachuted in to lead a country still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
For many voters, Ms Meloni was "the novelty, the only leader the Italians have not yet tried", Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy told AFP before the election.
But the self-declared "Christian mother" — whose experience of government has been limited to a stint as a minister in Mr Berlusconi's 2008 government — has huge challenges ahead.
Like much of Europe, Italy is suffering rampant inflation while an energy crisis looms this winter, linked to the conflict in Ukraine.
The Italian economy, the third largest in the Eurozone, is also saddled with a debt worth 150 per cent of gross domestic product.
Who is Giorgia Meloni?
A straight-speaking Roman raised by a single mother in a working-class neighbourhood, Ms Meloni rails against what she calls "LGBT lobbies", "woke ideology" and "the violence of Islam".
She has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who arrive on Italy's shores each year, a position she shares with Mr Salvini, who is currently on trial for blocking charity rescue ships when he was interior minister in 2019.
The centre-left Democratic Party claimed her government would pose a serious risk to hard-won rights such as abortion and will ignore global warming, despite Italy being on the front line of the climate emergency.
Brothers of Italy has roots in the post-fascist movement founded by supporters of Benito Mussolini, and Ms Meloni herself praised the dictator when she was young.
She has sought to distance herself from the past as she built up her party into a political force, going from just 4 per cent of the vote in 2018 to Sunday's triumph.
Voter turnout was lower this election than in 2018. Source: AP / Mauro Scrobogna
They want to renegotiate the EU's post-pandemic recovery fund, arguing that the almost 200 billion euros Italy is set to receive should take into account the energy crisis.
But "Italy cannot afford to be deprived of these sums", political sociologist Marc Lazar said, which means Ms Meloni actually has "very limited room for manoeuvre".
The funds are tied to a series of reforms only just begun by Mr Draghi.
