Italian far right set to take power with Meloni first female PM

If you're just catching up on the news of the likely formation of the first far-right government in Italy since fascist war-time dictator Benito Mussolini, here's what we know so far:

• Giorgia Meloni looks set to become Italy's first female prime minister, with her far-right Brothers of Italy party being projected to have won 26% of the vote over the weekend
• Her right-wing alliance - which also includes Matteo Salvini's League and former PM Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia - is on course to control both houses of parliament, should an agreement to form a government be reached
• Speaking to reporters after the vote, Meloni promised to govern for the whole of the country and said she would not betray the trust of voters
• Her image has been softened in recent times and she dislikes being linked to Italy's fascist history, but Meloni still uses a controversial old fascist slogan popular among the far right: "God, fatherland and family"
• Leaders of a similarly right-wing populist persuasion across Europe, including in Hungary and Poland, have hailed her victory
• Key European partners France and Germany, as well as other Western allies like the US, say they respect the outcome of the election and have vowed to co-operate with her government
• But there has also been dismay in Italy and across the EU at her victory, with some warning of the threat it poses to unity in Europe

BBCCopyright: BBC

As the election campaign heated up in recent weeks, Giorgia Meloni came under fire on more than one occasion.

In August, Meloni shared a video on social media showing a man sexually assaulting a woman in the street in the northern city of Piacenza. It later emerged that the man was an asylum seeker from Guinea.

Meloni's decision to tweet the video was heavily criticised by feminist activists and centre-left politicians - not least because she shared it without the victim's consent, but also because Meloni accompanied the video with a caption promising a much tougher approach to immigration. The video was later removed by Twitter.

Then, earlier this month in Genova, Meloni shared her stance on abortion, denying she plans to abolish or modify Italy's 1978 abortion law: "We want to give women who think abortion is the only option the right to make a different choice. We are not removing rights, we're adding to them," she said. Meloni said she would move the focus on prevention, but did not elaborate further.

Members of her party have spoken out against prevention methods such as sex education in schools in the past. The Brothers of Italy manifesto said it would create a fund to help single women with limited financial means to bring the pregnancy to term.

And last week, Meloni's party Brothers of Italy suspended one of its candidates after he was found to have praised Adolf Hitler in online posts.

Calogero Pisano, a party co-ordinator in Agrigento, Sicily, compared party leader Giorgia Meloni to "a great statesman of 70 years ago".

He added that he was referring to a "German" and not war-time fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He was swiftly dismissed.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Giorgia Meloni may have toned down her rhetoric ahead of this election, but a hard core of her Brothers of Italy party remains distinctly extreme. In the run-up to the election, the party suspended a party official for praising Adolf Hitler on social media.

Meloni utterly rejects any link to fascism, but as a teenager she was herself part of the youth wing of a neo-fascist movement created after World War Two by supporters of dead fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Brothers of Italy - Fratelli d'Italia - has its roots in that movement and Meloni still embraces an old slogan adopted by Mussolini's fascists: "God, fatherland and family."

"They are a xenophobic party; they are against migration and they are against any rights for the LGBT community," says Prof Leila Simona Talani of King's College London. They are also ultra-conservative on women's social rights, and Meloni has spoken out against "Islamist violence", she says.

The question is whether the party will remain far right. Prof Roberto D'Alimonte of Luiss-Guido Carli university believes this is uncharted territory, in which Italy will for the first time be headed by a woman, and one from the far right too.

"The hard core of the party is still far right and yet the new voters who voted for Meloni yesterday are not - so it really will depend on Meloni to change the party."

BBCCopyright: BBC

Today’s election result is a “historic” turning point, according to the editor-in-chief of local daily newspaper, L’Arena.

Massimo Mamoli meets me in his offices in Verona where they’re busy digesting the success of Giorgia Meloni’s campaign in the region.

Her party polled at just 4% at the last election in 2018.

Latest figures suggest Brothers of Italy received more than 30% of the vote this time in the Veneto region, up from just 4%.

Mamoli puts the dramatic swing towards the Brothers of Italy movement, in part, down to Meloni’s “consistency” on issues like the economy and foreign policy - while some of her rivals were more ambiguous.

He also thinks her promise to keep a handle on the public finances played well in this wealthier part of the country.

But Italian politics are famously volatile and Mamoli also sees trouble ahead given the “weakness” amongst her likely coalition allies.

“That could potentially compromise her ability to govern.”

China has expressed hope that the new Italian government will pursue a "positive and pragmatic policy towards China", state-run newspaper Global Times reports.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the "healthy and stable development of China-Italy relations is in the common interests of both sides".

Earlier this month, Meloni said the next government would have to face a rapidly changing international landscape, with both Russia and China challenging the West.

Italy would not be "the weak link" in the Western alliance, she said.

EPACopyright: EPA

As we've been reporting, Giorgia Meloni is on course to become Italy's first female leader - as well as the first far-right leader since the second world war.

But what do we know about the woman who looks set to transform the face of Italian politics in the process?

Our Rome correspondent Mark Lowen has taken a look at her life and career, from being raised by a single mother in a (traditionally leftist) working-class area of Rome, to becoming Italy's youngest-ever minister under Silvio Berlusconi in 2008 and leading her Brothers of Italy party to victory at the weekend.

Embracing a controversial old motto adopted by Benito Mussolini's fascists, "God, fatherland and family", she has campaigned against LGBT rights, wants a naval blockade of Libya and has warned repeatedly against Muslim migrants, he notes.

But Meloni was the only leader to have kept her party out of Mario Draghi's national unity coalition government, emerging as the only main opposition leader after it collapsed this summer.

Profiling her, BBC Radio 4's Mark Coles says her victory represents a huge political shift in a European country struggling with economic and political instability

Listen to his full look at Meloni and the possible implications of her victory here.

We have more reaction now to Meloni's projected victory, with Moscow saying it is open to developing "constructive" ties with Rome.

"We are ready to welcome any political forces that are able to go beyond the established mainstream, which is filled with hate for our country," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Meloni's political allies in Italy have both made controversial remarks about Russia.

Silvio Berlusconi claimed last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "pushed" into invading Ukraine, though he later made clear Russia's aggression against Ukraine was "unjustifiable and unacceptable".

Meanwhile, Matteo Salvini has questioned Western sanctions on Moscow - something Meloni herself supports at EU level.

Meanwhile, Hungary's nationalist leader Prime Minister Viktor Orban has congratulated Meloni - whose rhetoric on the EU is close to that of the Hungarian nationalist leader - and her allies on the election results.

He added he looked forward to future co-operation over peace, the European economy and the energy crisis.

Now that Giorgia Meloni's success is clear, the US government says it's "eager" to work with a new Italian government on "shared goals".

Writing on Twitter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the priorities are:

• supporting a free and independent Ukraine
• respecting human rights
• building a sustainable economic future

Quote Message: Italy is a vital ally, strong democracy, and valued partner [of the US]." from Antony Blinken US Secretary of State

Italy is a vital ally, strong democracy, and valued partner [of the US]."

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron says his government respects the democratic choice of Italian voters.

The European Union must continue to work together with Italy "as neighbours and friends", the Elysée Palace said in a statement.

"It is within Europe that we will overcome our common challenges," it added.

France's statement shares similarity with the official line from fellow eurozone lynchpin Germany, where the government has expressed the view it expects Italy to continue to be a "very Europe-friendly country".

EPACopyright: EPA

Silvio Berlusconi has once again been elected to the Senate in the city of Monza, where he bought the football team and got it promoted to Serie A, the top division of Italian football, earlier this year.

Berlusconi's girlfriend, 32-year-old Marta Fascina, also won a seat in Sicily for the lower Chamber of Deputies.

Two of the first congratulatory messages to Giorgia Meloni, within the EU, have come from Hungary and Poland.

That’s no coincidence. Warsaw and Budapest both have conservative nationalist governments who rail against EU overreach and have been at odds with Brussels on issues including LGBT rights.

But it’s a little more complicated than saying the three nations might sit as some kind of united trio around the European Council table.

Poland and Hungary are deeply split on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Warsaw has been hard-line on sanctions against the Kremlin whereas Budapest has been seen, increasingly, as a barrier.

Giorgia Meloni has stressed her support for Ukraine but it’s an approach that, it’s feared, won’t be fully backed by her right wing allies.

What is certain is that a new Meloni government could mean more EU division given its predecessor was the Brussels-favoured technocrat, Mario Draghi.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

More now from Deborah Bergamini, an MP for Forza Italia, the centre-right member of the new coalition government.

The Brothers of Italy party is not far-right and global perceptions of it are wrong, she tells the BBC.

"My feeling is that in some cases abroad there is a wrong perception of what Brothers of Italy is," Bergamini says.

"It is not a far-right party, it’s a democratic right party with a long history around Giorgia Meloni, who has already been a minister in a Berlusconi government and has experience in ruling the country - so very different from the perception that is shared abroad."

She was referring to Silvio Berlusconi, former PM and leader of Forza Italia.

The official line from Germany - as we reported earlier - is one that suggests expectation of a "Europe-friendly country".

However, most politicians who have commented on Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy’s predicted win have expressed concern or alarm. The only German party to welcome the result is the far-right AfD.

Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy politician with the conservative Christian Democrat CDU, expressed worry about Meloni’s “openly post-fascist comments” and the “hair-raising views” of her party’s members.

He told the DPA news agency that “racism and the exclusion of minorities should have no longer have any place in Europe”.

Katarina Barley, EU Parliament Vice-President and leading politician within Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrat SPD, told German newspaper Die Welt that Meloni’s “electorally tactical lip service to Europe” can’t hide the fact she represents a danger for constructive co-operation in Europe.

Barley said Meloni was worrying because her “political role models are Viktor Orban and Donald Trump”.

Omid Nouripour, chairman of the German Green Party, described the result as “alarming”.

In an interview on German television, he said it was well-known that people in her right-wing nationalist coalition had "very close relations with the Kremlin”.

He said it couldn’t be ruled out that in Moscow yesterday evening, people were also “cracking open the champagne”.

Leading AfD politician Beatrix von Storch meanwhile tweeted: “We are celebrating with Italy! My heartfelt congratulations to the whole centre-right coalition.”

She wrote she hoped that, together with “our friends around Salvini”, Meloni would “build a strong right-wing government. Sweden in the north, Italy in the south: left-wing governments are so yesterday.”

The German government says it expects Italy to continue to be a "very Europe-friendly country" despite Giorgia Meloni's predicted victory in its election.

"We of course have to wait for the official final result from this election, but at this time, what the chancellor would say is that Italy is a very Europe-friendly country with very Europe-friendly citizens and we assume that won't change," Chancellor Olaf Scholz's deputy spokesman Wolfgang Büchner has said.

A finance ministry spokesperson adds Berlin expects the new government to respect the stability pact that sets the fiscal rules for the eurozone, the AFP news agency reports.

As results continue to come in, some big names are known to have missed out:

• Luigi Di Maio, the minister of foreign affairs, has not been re-elected in his hometown of Naples
• Veteran legislator, former foreign affairs minister and More Europe party leader Emma Bonino lost to the centre-right candidate in the Lazio region
• Azione party leader Carlo Calenda too did not manage to win a seat
• Isabella Rauti, the daughter of the founder of the MSI - a former neo-fascist party founded by supporters of dictator Benito Mussolini - won a seat over Emanuele Fiano, son of Auschwitz survivor and writer Nedo Fiano

Was yesterday's vote for Meloni - or anti-everything and everybody else?

Probably both in a country that has tried every shade of politics in its almost 70 governments since World War Two.

The Italy beloved by the world for its food, art, history and culture is just not working for a large part of its own population. A perpetually stagnant economy has helped fuel a massive brain drain.

The political gerontocracy of recycled ageing men in suits has prompted a massive desire for change. Enough Italians feel that Giorgia Meloni represents that - for better or worse.

Her rigidity on LGBT rights and immigration finds favour in Italy, where Catholic conservatism still holds sway, and which has long felt it has shouldered the burden of Europe’s migration crisis.

And while she insists her party has consigned fascism to history, a country that never had the equivalent of Germany’s denazification has allowed traces of its dark past to permeate through its post-war politics.

There is, undoubtedly, a section of Meloni’s base that still glorifies Il Duce [war-time fascist dictator Benito Mussolini]. She knows it is now incumbent upon her to reassure Italians - and Europeans - that she really has moved on.

Is Meloni the future? At least for a while, certainly. But in a country whose governments last on average just over a year, she knows Italians’ patience with the latest political novelty can run out quickly.

As we've been reporting, Giorgia Meloni is poised to become Italy's first far-right leader since World War Two. She has pledged to "govern for everyone".

Her far-right Brothers of Italy party and its allies are set to have a clear majority in both houses of parliament, according to projected election results.

And Meloni will need her allies' support - that of Matteo Salvini's League and veteran Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia - to form a majority.

The European Commission says it hopes to have a constructive relationship with Meloni's new government, but warned Italy of consequences should it veer away from democratic principles.

Meloni's nationalist protectionist tones, for example, really worry Brussels, our Europe editor says.

And French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has said the European Union would closely follow Italy's stance on certain human rights and values such as women's access to abortion.

Even though there's little doubt about the outcome, the final official results are still to come - we'll let you know as soon as we have them.

How are Italy's newspapers reporting Giorgia Meloni's projected victory at the polls? "Meloni takes Italy" is centre-left newspaper La Repubblica's headline.

La RepubblicaCopyright: La Repubblica

"Are we really ready?" wonders centre-left Domani newspaper.

DomaniCopyright: Domani

"We're free! Now it's her turn" celebrates populist-leaning Libero.

LiberoCopyright: Libero

Self-described Communist newspaper Il Manifesto quotes Meloni: "It's our turn now."

Il ManifestoCopyright: Il Manifesto

Giorgia Meloni says she'll work "for all Italians" after claiming victory in Italy's election.

Meloni - who is set to become Italy's first female prime minister - says: "If we are called to govern this nation we will do it for all Italians.

"We will do it with the aim of uniting people, of enhancing what unites them rather than what divides them."

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The European Commission says it hopes for a "constructive" relationship with Giorgia Meloni's new government, despite a public row earlier on.

Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League and a part of Meloni's conservative alliance, had accused commission chief Ursula von der Leyen of "shameful arrogance" for comments she made ahead of the election.

Von der Leyen said she would be willing to work with the democratically elected government, but warned Italy of consequences should it veer away from democratic principles.

"If things go in a difficult direction, I've spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools," she said - referencing the pulling of funding to those countries in a long-running row.

But EU spokesman Eric Mamer told a news conference this morning that the commission - the EU's executive branch - works by principle "with the governments that emerge from the elections".

"This is no different in this case. Of course, we hope that we will have a constructive co-operation with the new Italian authorities," he added.