The ultra-conservative Brothers of Italy party is likely to get between 22 and 26% of the vote, with coalition partners Matteo Salvini’s League between 8.5 and 12.5% and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia between 6 and 8%. Vote.
Meloni, head of a far-right coalition, is now set to become Italy’s first female prime minister. Final results are expected early Monday.
Meloni’s party has seen a rise in popularity in recent years, winning just 4.5% of the vote in the last 2018 election.
Their popularity underscores Italy’s long-standing rejection of politics, seen most recently with the support of anti-establishment parties such as the Five Star Movement and the Salvinis League.
Salvini celebrated early results Sunday evening on Twitter, writing, “Centre-right clear advantage in House and Senate! It’s been a long night, but now I want to say thank you.”
Mother Meloni, 45, from Rome, who campaigned under the slogan “God, country and family”, leads a party that has proposed cuts to Euroscepticism, anti-immigration policies and LGBTQ and abortion. rights.
A centre-left coalition led by the left-wing Democratic Party and the centrist Party +Europe is set to win 25.5% to 29.5% of the vote, while former prime minister Giuseppe Conte appears to be trying to revive the Five Star Movement. It did not win, taking only 14 to 17% of the vote.
Democrats conceded defeat Monday morning, calling the results a “sad evening for the country.”
“Undoubtedly, in light of the data we’ve seen so far, Georgia Meloni can’t claim victory for the far right. It’s a sad evening for the country,” Democrat Deborah Cerchiani told reporters.
Sunday’s snap national election was triggered by party infighting that saw the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government in July.
Voters went to the polls amid several new regulations, including one day instead of two.
Other changes include a lower voting age for the Senate and a reduction in the number of seats — from 685 to 400 in the Senate and from 315 to 200 in the lower house of Parliament. That parliament is scheduled to convene on October 13, when the state president will call on party leaders to decide on the form of the new government.
Meloni differs from coalition leaders Berlusconi and Salvini on several issues, including Ukraine, and has no ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, unlike the pair, has said he wants to review sanctions against Russia. The Italian economy. Meloni instead remains steadfast in his support for the defense of Ukraine.
The incoming prime minister — the sixth in just eight years — will be tasked with tackling those challenges, along with rising energy costs and the country’s most pressing economic uncertainty.
Although Meloni made history as Italy’s first female prime minister, her politics did not necessarily mean she was interested in advancing women’s rights.
Emiliana de Blasio, diversity and inclusion adviser at LUISS University in Rome, told CNN Meloni “doesn’t raise all the questions about women’s rights and empowerment in general.”
Sunday’s results mark recent victories for other far-right parties in other European countries, with Sweden’s anti-immigration Sweden Democrats — a party with neo-Nazi roots — expected to play a key role. The new government after winning the second largest number of seats in the general election earlier this month.
In France, far-right ideologue Marine Le Pen lost the French presidential election to Emmanuel Macron in April, her popular vote shifting France’s political center dramatically to the right.
