Giorgia Meloni, chief of the right-wing party Brothers of Italy, declared victory in the national elections after an alliance led by her won most parliamentary votes, the Associated Press reported.
With this victory, the country is set to get its first far-right-led government since World War II, when fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was at the helm. Meloni will also be Italy’s first woman prime minister.
Meloni and her coalition partners Matteo Salvini from League of Salvini Premier and Silvio Berlusconi from For Italia, share a hard-right vision for Italy.
The Brothers of Italy chief has called for blocking migrants that come by sea and has spoken about a “great replacement” of native Italians, The New York Times reported. Meloni, along with Salvini and Berlusconi, has rooted for deep tax cuts that economists fear would inflate Italy’s already enormous debt.
Berlusconi and Salvini have also supported Russian President’s Vladmir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. They have questioned the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States to distort any indirect financial help to Moscow.
The results – which are nearing a conclusion – showed the coalition netting 44% of the parliamentary vote, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy securing some 26%. Salvini’s party has won nearly 9% of the votes and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia has secured around 8%.
The centre-left Democratic Party and its allies won 26% of the votes, while the 5-Star Movement – which had the largest vote in the 2018 elections – got only 15% this year.
Meloni, who gave a speech on Monday as the alliance gained more votes, said that Italians are clear on who they wanted to govern, the Associated Press reported.
“If we are called to govern this nation, we will do it for everyone, we will do it for all Italians and we will do it with the aim of uniting the people [of this country],” Meloni said. “Italy chose us. We will not betray [the country] as we never have.”
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