Giorgia Meloni dominates Italy elections, set to become first female Prime Minister

Giorgia Meloni is on course to become Italy’s first female Prime Minister. The far-right leader dominated polls on Sunday but is yet to form a ruling coalition to take over the top office. Getting right-wing and center-right allies to huddle for a coalition may take weeks.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is expected to win about 25.7% of the votes, which were cast on Sunday. The projections came from nearly two-thirds of the voting stations, according to news agency Associated Press.

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Enrico Letta was Meloni’s closest challenger in the elections. He secured about 19.3% of the votes. Salvini’s League was projected to win 8.6% of the ballots, roughly half of what he got in the 2018 election. Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, appeared headed to win 8%.

Giorgia Meloni, 45, is on course to set up Italy’s first far-right-led government since World War II, news agency AP reported. The Brothers of Italy party has been described as a “euroskeptic party with neo-fascist roots.”

After opinion polls in the run-up to the vote indicated she would be headed to victory, Meloni started moderating her message of “God, homeland and family” in an apparent attempt to reassure the European Union and other international partners, worried about euro-skepticism.

“This is the time for being responsible,” Meloni said, appearing live on television and describing the situation for Italy and the European Union as “particularly complex.”

Nearly 64% of eligible voters deserted the balloting, according to the Interior Ministry. That is far lower than the previous record for low turnout, 73% in 2018.

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Italy has had three coalition governments since the last election — each led by someone who hadn’t run for office, and that appeared to have alienated many voters, pollsters had said.

Meloni’s party was forged from the legacy of a neo-fascist party formed shortly after the war by nostalgists of dictator Benito Mussolini, AP reported.