Rome is moving to the right: In the elections in Italy, the camp of the right-wing parties has won a clear election. The post-fascist “Brothers of Italy” are the new strongest force in the Italian parliament.
Italy has voted: in the third largest economic power in the European Union, a clear election result is emerging on the morning after the long election day. The polling stations did not close until 11 p.m. late on Sunday evening. The counting of the votes continues. But already on the night of the election, the first forecasts and projections put the right in front.
The alliance around the far-right party “Fratelli d’Italia” (Brothers of Italy) can count on a government majority in parliament in the early elections. Above all, one can triumph: Giorgia Meloni, whose Fratelli forecasts and first projections were the strongest force and improved significantly compared to 2018.
More than 50 million Italians of voting age were called on last Sunday to vote on the balance of power and majority in the two chambers of the Roman parliament.
Meloni’s alliance, which, in addition to the post-fascist Fratelli, also includes the right-wing populist Lega and the conservative Forza Italia Silvio Berlusconi, is likely to get more than half of the seats in parliament, as Italian media reported unanimously. As party leader of the Fratelli d’Italia, Meloni could become Italy’s first female head of government.
The electoral victory of the Italian right is based primarily on gains in votes for Meloni and her post-fascists. The Fratelli’s two coalition partners – the right-wing populist Lega and the conservative party Forza Italia – slipped in favor of the voters. Party alliances are forged in Rome before the election date due to some peculiarities of Italian electoral law.
On the morning after the parliamentary elections, Giorgia Meloni claimed the government mandate from the right-wing camp led by her party. Based on the first projections, it can be said that the Italians sent a clear signal to the ballot boxes, Meloni said early Monday morning in Rome.
She spoke of a “night of pride” and a “night of redemption”. She said to her followers that one was not at the place of arrival, but at the place of departure. The Fratelli d’Italia were still largely insignificant in the 2018 general election with just over 4.0 percent.
With the right-wing populist Lega and the conservative Forza Italia, Meloni should get an absolute majority of the seats in parliament. The distribution of seats in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies was not yet clear on the morning after the election night.
The reason for the early elections in Italy was the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi in July. The former head of the ECB decided to take this step after three parties in his grand coalition refused to vote in confidence. Draghi threw in the towel, Italy had to choose again.
Overall voter turnout continued to decline compared to the previous parliamentary elections. Observers were already speaking of a historically low rate during the election day. At 7 p.m., four hours before the polling stations closed, only around 51 percent of those eligible to vote had cast their votes, the Interior Ministry announced. In the 2018 elections, it was around 59 percent at the time.
At the end of the day, Italy registered the lowest voter turnout of its post-war period at just under 73 percent – this value could now be significantly undercut again. According to the evaluation, the inflow was particularly weak in the south of the country in the regions of Calabria, Apulia, Campania and Basilicata as well as on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, at times well below 40 percent.
