Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League, has promised that his alliance with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy will deliver a long-lasting government as Italians began to digest the outcome of an election that delivered the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.
Final results on Monday gave the coalition control of both houses of parliament with 44% of the vote and confirmed the swing in the balance of power in the Italian far-right towards Meloni after her party made spectacular gains in the League’s northern strongholds of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Meloni is expected to be given a mandate from president Sergio Mattarealla to form a government after 13 October, meaning she could take office by the end of next month.
Brothers of Italy, a party with neo-fascist origins, scored 26% of the total vote, compared with the League’s 9%, an abysmal result for a party which in 2019 was polling at almost 40%. The third member of the coalition is Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
The outcome nonetheless makes Salvini, who enacted tough anti-migrant measures during his stint as interior minister in 2018-19, a key protagonist in a government that will be hostile towards immigrants, LGBT people and women seeking to access safe abortions.