Far-right election winner Giorgia Meloni has vowed to govern for all Italians as she is set to be announced as the country’s first female Prime Minister – and its most right-wing leader since Mussolini.
Meloni, head of the nationalist Brothers of Italy party, said voters have given a clear mandate to the right to form the next government and called for unity to help confront the country’s many problems.
She added: ‘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. We will not betray your trust.’
As polls in the run up to Sunday’s vote indicated her as the likely winner, Meloni has moderated her far-right message in an apparent attempt to reassure the European Union and other international partners.
She said ‘this is the time to be responsible’, before describing the situation for Italy and the EU as ‘particularly complex’.
It comes after an exit poll for state broadcaster RAI said Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, in alliance Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, had won between 41 per cent and 45 per cent of the vote.
Despite Salvini’s and Berlusconi’s parties lagging behind, between them the Conservative bloc appear to have won enough seats 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.
Meloni will face huge challenges, with Italy currently suffering rampant inflation while an energy crisis looms this winter, linked to the conflict in Ukraine.
Despite her euroscepticism, Meloni strongly supports the EU’s sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, although her allies are another matter.
Berlusconi, the billionaire former premier who has long been friends with Vladimir Putin, faced an outcry this week after suggesting the Russian president was ‘pushed’ into war by his entourage.
According to the poll, the closest contender, the centre-left alliance of former Democratic Party Premier Enrico Letta, garnered as much as 29.5 per cent.
They failed to form a viable challenge with other parties, with the Five Star Movement under Giuseppe Conte srt to finish third. But despite also having several centre-left policies, the party has disagreements with Mr Letta