Italy’s far-right won the election

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has won Italy’s election and will be the country’s first female prime minister,  a right-wing government since World War  Two and since Benito Mussolini.

 Ms. Melon’s right-wing Alliance has control of both houses with 42.2 per cent of the Senate Vote.

The turnout was low – 63.82 per cent by the time polls closed, according to Italy’s interior ministry almost 10 points down on 2018. Italy is a founding father of the European Union and a member of NATO and Ms. Meloni’s rhetoric on the EU places her close to Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban. Her allies Matteo Salvini of the far-right League, and former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia have both had close ties with Russia. Mr. Berlusconi claimed last week that Vladimir Putin was pushed into invading Ukraine while Mr. Salvini has called into question Western Sanctions on Moscow.

Ms. Meloni wants to revisit Italian reforms agreed with the EU in return for almost €200bn ( £178bn) in post-Covid recovery grants and loans, arguing that the energy crisis has changed the situation.

Giorgia Meloni, used to queue up with her grandfather to buy ripe tomatoes and fresh cucumbers at Anna Maria Totora’s market stall in Garbatella, a working-class southern neighbourhood of Rome.