Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist party wins Italian elections

Nicole Winfield, Frances D’emilio and Giada Zampano, The Associated Press

ROME — Nearly final results show that a party with neo-fascist roots, Fratelli d’Italia — Brothers of Italy — won Italy’s national elections on Sunday.

This victory should give birth to the first far-right government since the Second World War and make its leader, Giorgia Meloni, the first woman to become prime minister.

The country’s rightward shift immediately altered Europe’s geopolitical reality, placing a Eurosceptic party in a position to lead a founding member of the European Union and its third-largest economy.

Leaders of Europe’s right-wing parties immediately hailed Ms Meloni’s victory and her party’s meteoric rise as sending a historic message to Brussels.

The near-final results showed the right-wing coalition winning some 44% of the vote, with Fratelli d’Italia grabbing some 26%. Its alliance partners shared the rest, with Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord winning almost 9% and ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s more moderate Forza Italia taking around 8%.

The centre-left Democratic Party and its allies had around 26%, while the Movimento 5 Stelle – which won the most votes in the 2018 legislative elections – saw its vote share cut in half, to around 15% this time.

The participation rate reached a historic low of 64%.