Giorgia Meloni scores a clear victory in Sunday’s Italian election, setting herself up to become the first female Prime Minister of the nation at the head of the most right-wing government since World War II.
Her alliance, which also includes Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, claimed around 43% of the vote, as per the projections for RAI, one of the public broadcaster. That would give the bloc at least 114 seats in the Senate, where 104 votes are required for a majority.
Meloni emerged from the political fringes after leading the opposition to Mario Draghi’s technocratic administration which has stabilized the nation over the past 18 months after the trauma of the pandemic.
Yet the charismatic 45-year-old has little experience of governing and she would be taking office at a perilous moment for her nation.
The next Italian government will face a series of overlapping crises as the energy shortages triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuel rampant inflation and undermine growth. The hit to Italy’s finances and the prospect of more interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank have pushed the yield on Italy’s 10-year bonds to more than 4.3% compared with less than 1% in December.
“We haven’t arrived,” Meloni told supporters in the small hours of Monday in a sober speech at a hotel in downtown Rome. “This is a starting point. And tomorrow we will have to show what we are worth.”
