On Monday former premier and centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico Letta said that he would not contest the party leadership in the PD’s next congress that will assess a disappointing general election result.

Letta said that despite only getting 19 per cent of the vote compared to 22 per cent in the pre-election opinion polls:

 “We will wage a strong and intransigent opposition.”

This will be an opposition to the victorious centre right coalition led by Italy’s probable first woman premier, Giorgia Meloni of the Fratelli D’Italia (FdI) party – set to be Italy’s most right-wing leader since World War 2.

Letta said it was a “sad” day with the right in power.

“Italian men and women have chosen - a clear and marked choice, the country will have a rightwing government.

“Today is a sad day for Italy and Europe”.

In better spirits was 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte, who said he was satisfied with the group’s showing in the general election, with the M5S projected to get around 15-16 per cent of the vote.

“They all said we were in for a beating,” ex-premier Conte said.

“We are the third biggest party (in parliament) and so we have a big responsibility”.

The performance appears to have vindicated Conte’s decision to trigger the crisis of government that led to the collapse of outgoing Premier Mario Draghi’s coalition to some degree, even though this move spelled the end of an electoral pact with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

Conte also said that the M5S would battle hard against any bid by a future centre-right government to scrap the ‘citizenship wage’ minimum-salary benefit, a flagship M5S policy which was introduced by the first of his two governments.

‘Third Pole’ and Azione leader Carlo Calenda said on Monday that Italians have chosen dangerous nationalists in the right-wing alliance led by FdI.

“The Italians have chosen to give a solid majority to the nationalist right,” he said.

“We consider this prospect dangerous and uncertain.

“We’ll see if Meloni is capable of governing; we will wage a tough but constructive opposition,” the former industry minister concluded.