Meloni, 45, would be well-positioned to become Italy’s first far-right premier since the end of World War II and the first woman in the country to hold that office.
ROME — Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s electoral alliance appeared to hold a wide lead in Italy’s national vote, an exit poll on state television suggested shortly after polls closed Sunday evening.
Meloni’s meteoric rise in the European Union’s third-largest economy comes at a critical time, as much of the continent reels under soaring energy bills, a repercussion of the war in Ukraine..Italians voted Sunday in an election that could move the country’s politics sharply toward the right during a critical time for Europe, with the war in Ukraine fueling skyrocketing energy bills and testing the West's resolve to stand united against Russian aggression.
If that sentiment holds, Meloni would be positioned to form the country's first far-right-led government since the end of World War II. If Meloni becomes premier, she will be the first woman in Italy to hold that office.Meloni's party was forged from the legacy of a neo-fascist party formed shortly the war by nostalgists of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
"I hope we’ll see honest people, and this is very difficult nowadays,” Adriana Gherdo said at a polling station in Rome. Opinion polls found that Draghi, a former European Central Bank chief, was hugely popular. But the three populist parties in his coalition boycotted a confidence vote tied to an energy relief measure. Their leaders, Salvini, Berlusconi and 5-Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte, a former premier whose party is the largest in the outgoing Parliament, saw Meloni’s popularity growing while theirs were slipping.
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