The PD came second with around 24.5 per cent of the vote, according to projections, up from around 19 per cent in the 2022 Italian general election.
“It’s an extraordinary result for us,” Schlein said at the PD’s Rome headquarters.
“We are the party that has grown most since the general election,” she added.
Schlein also stressed that the gap with Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party (FdI), which got almost 29 per cent, had narrowed.
“We will continue to be stubbornly in favour of [opposition] unity,” said Schlein.
“We feel the responsibility to build the alternative.
“The sum of the parties of the opposition is above that of the ruling majority.”
At the EU level, Schlein said support for the Party of European Socialists (PES) had “held up”.
She stressed that “no majority [in the European Parliament] is possible without the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group”.
ANSA
