Italy has made a decided shift to the right, with Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli D’Italia (FdI) having shot to victory in the general elections. The Rome native is now on track to becoming Italy’s first ever female leader.
Meloni’s far-right party is set to win roughly 26 per cent of the vote following the weekend’s election, while the broader centre-right coalition to which it belongs has already secured a clear majority in parliament.
Alongside former premier Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini’s Lega party, Meloni will eventually helm Italy’s most right-wing government since the Second World War, with CNN calling dubbing her “the most far-right premier since Mussolini” and the Guardian describing FdI as having “neo-fascist roots”.
“This is a time for responsibility,” said Meloni on Monday.
“This a time in which, if you want to be part of history, you must realise that we have a responsibility towards millions of people who chose us. We won’t betray it, as we never have.”
“If we are called on to govern the nation, we will do it for everyone, to unite a people, by making the most of what unites, rather than what divides.
“We are not at a finishing line but a final destination. As of tomorrow, we must show what we are worth.”
Meloni also said she was “sorry” about the fact that Italy’s turnout, at 64 per cent, was the lowest ever on record for a general election.
“The challenge is to get people believing in the institutions again,” she said.
“Too many Italians choose not to trust. It is necessary to rebuild the relationship between State and citizen”.
Meloni rejects the ‘post-Fascist’ label and says that FdI has more in common with Britain’s Conservatives and the US Republicans.
FdI’s logo features the Tricolour Flame first used by the post-war neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) party, formed by members of Mussolini’s movement.
Meloni says the Italian right has “handed Fascism over to history”, and has condemned its suspension of democracy and “ignominious” racial laws.
Also speaking on Monday, Lega leader Matteo Salvini said Italy’s centre right coalition and is solid enough to govern for the next five-year legislative parliamentary term.
“I’m confident that for at least five years we’ll push ahead without change with a clear centre-right majority,” said the nationalist leader, whose party came a distant second in the alliance to FdI, just a hair ahead of Silvio Berlusconi’s centre right Forza Italia (FI), in the election.
“Yesterday I texted Giorgia Meloni, whom I obviously compliment, she was good: we will work together for a long time.”
“Fratelli D’Italia was good to wage a strong opposition, and being in government for almost two years was not easy, but I’d do it again considering the situation.”
He added that Lega’s result of 9 per cent does not satisfy him:
“It’s not what I worked towards, but with 9 per cent we are in a centre-right government in which we will be protagonists.”
Salvini said that Lega would not change its team in Lombardy despite seeing a sharp drop in support there.
Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said on Monday that an attempt by the centrist Third Pole to steal the voters of his Forza Italia party had failed after FI gained a better-than-expected 8 per cent of the vote as part of the right coalition.
“The strong growth of Fratelli D’Italia did not hurt us, and the attempt by the so-called centrists to capture our votes completely failed,” Berlusconi said in a video message.
“Their limited success came at the cost of the PD”, he concluded.
