Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, has declared victory in a general election that appears to be setting her up to become Italy’s first female prime minister and head the most far-right administration since Benito Mussolini’s fascist era.
It was “a night of pride for many and a night of redemption,” Meloni said in an early-morning Monday address to the media and supporters.
It’s a victory I want to dedicate to everyone who is no longer with us and wanted this night,” she said. “Starting tomorrow we have to show our value … Italians chose us, and we will not betray it, as we never have,” she said.
Italian Interior Ministry estimates that a coalition of far-right parties, including Meloni’s ultraconservative Brothers of Italy party, will garner at least 44% of the vote.
The Brothers of Italy party received at least 26% of the vote with 63% of the votes counted, followed by coalition allies the League, led by Matteo Salvini, with 9%, and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia with over 8%. Although final results are anticipated later on Monday, forming a new administration is anticipated to take weeks.
Meloni joined the crowded Italian political landscape in 2006 and co-founded the Brothers of Italy party in 2012, a group with anti-immigration and anti-euro ideas at its core.
The party only received 4.5% of the vote in the most recent election in 2018, but its popularity has grown recently, highlighting Italy’s long-standing rejection of traditional politics, which was most recently evident in the nation’s support for anti-establishment parties like the Five Star Movement and Salvini’s League.
Salvini posted on Twitter on Sunday night in celebration of the preliminary results, “Both in the House and the Senate, the center-right is clearly in the lead! Even if the night will be lengthy, I already want to express my gratitude.”
On the subject of Ukraine, Meloni differs from the leaders of the coalition partners. Meloni has been unwavering in her support for defending Ukraine, in contrast to Berlusconi and Salvini, who have both stated that they would like to revisit sanctions against Russia because of their effects on the Italian economy.
Rome-based mother Meloni, 45, is fiercely anti-LGBT and openly conservative. She has threatened to review same-sex unions, which became legal in Italy in 2016. She has also referred to abortion as a “tragedy,” which has people concerned about the future of women’s rights in the nation.
