Meloni becomes Italy’s first far-right PM in a century

Giorgia Meloni, a hard-right coalition leader in Italy, is poised to become the first far-right leader in a century since Benito Mussolini and the country’s first-ever female prime minister. The nationalist Brothers of Italy, a hardliner party that had been finding itself on the periphery of national politics, has come to power in the E.U.’s third-largest economy, hinting at significant changes in the political landscape in Europe.

According to an exit poll released by the public media Rai on Monday, a right-wing coalition with the extreme-right party at the center is on course to win 45 percent of the vote, taking the lead in the election. The minimum vote needed to form a government is 40 percent. The left coalition is projected to win 25 to 29 percent of the vote. The conservative coalition is set to gain a majority of seats in both chambers of Congress, with 227 to 257 seats among 400 in the lower house and 111 to 131 seats among 200 in the upper house.

The coalition consists of the ‘Brothers of Italy,’ led by Meloni, Senator Matteo Salvini’s right-wing ‘League’ and the center-right ‘Go Italy’ founded by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Giorgio Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, the biggest vote-getter, is projected to take office as prime minister. The far-right leader finds her roots as a politician in the neo-fascist “Italian Social Movement,” created by the supporters of Mussolini, that she joined at the age of 15. Meloni is often called a “female Mussolini.”


Eun-A Cho achim@donga.com