Italy election: Near-final results show Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy have won most votes – live updates | Italy

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Near-final results show Brothers of Italy have won the most votes

Near-final results give a party with neo-fascist roots, the Brothers of Italy, the most votes in Italy’s national elections.

The results showed the centre-right coalition netting some 44% of the parliamentary vote, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy taking about 26%. Her coalition partners divided up the remainder, with the anti-immigrant League of Matteo Salvini winning nearly 9% and the more moderate Forza Italia of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi taking around 8%.

Full results here:

Updated at 11.08 BSTE

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Lorenzo Tondo

Giorgia Meloni’s new government should “stay united” with the rest of the EU on the war in Ukraine and the resultant energy shock, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-General Mathias Cormann has said.

“We await the formation of the new government. When we have a new government in Italy we will be happy to work with them to have policies aimed at a better life,” Cormann said in answering a question from Italian news agency ANSA on his message to the next government in Rome.

“In the current context it is good to have strong longterm solidarity in Europe,” he said. Meloni has spoken out strongly in support of the Wwstern line on Ukraine on a number of occasions. However, both her coalition’s partners, the League and Forza Italia, had close ties to Russia and Vladimir Putin before the invasion of Ukraine. On Friday, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s three-time former prime minister and leader of Forza Italia, sparked a row after defending the Russian president over the war in Ukraine.

The 85-year-old billionaire told Italian TV that Putin, an old friend of his, was pushed to invade Ukraine by the Russian people and by ministers who wanted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration replaced with “decent people”.

The far-right League leader, Matteo Salvini, has also nurtured ties with Russia, heaped praise on Putin in the past and criticizing the economic sanctions against the country over its war in Ukraine for “bringing Italy to its knees”.

Read this analysis from our Rome correspondent, Angela Giuffrida:

Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. But despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, has limited government experience.

If Meloni is confirmed as prime minister over the next few weeks, she will be in charge of steering Italy through one of its most delicate periods, dealing with mammoth challenges from the energy crisis and high inflation to a possible recession and a winter wave of Covid -19.

Her most immediate challenge, however, would be putting together a cabinet that is fit enough to govern and strong enough to last. A person close to Meloni told the Guardian last week that she was ready to be prime minister, rejecting rumours towards the end of the campaign that the daunting task was making her panicky.

Near-final results show Brothers of Italy have won the most votes

Near-final results give a party with neo-fascist roots, the Brothers of Italy, the most votes in Italy’s national elections.

The results showed the centre-right coalition netting some 44% of the parliamentary vote, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy taking about 26%. Her coalition partners divided up the remainder, with the anti-immigrant League of Matteo Salvini winning nearly 9% and the more moderate Forza Italia of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi taking around 8%.

Full results here:

Updated at 11.08 BSTE

Lorenzo Tondo

Italy’s acclaimed writer Roberto Saviano, author of the expo of organized crime in Naples, Gomorrah, has posted a stark message after his name started trending on Twitter this morning.

Leggo #Saviano in tendenza perché gli elettori di Meloni mi “invitano” a lasciare il Paese. Questi sono avvertimenti. Questa è l’Italia che ci aspetta. Stanno già stilando una prima lista nera di nemici della patria, alla faccia di chi diceva che il Fascismo è un’altra cosa. pic.twitter.com/iiSKxeEqaq

— Roberto Saviano (@robertosaviano) September 26, 2022

He says:

I have read that #Saviano is trending because Meloni voters are “inviting” me to leave the country. These are warnings. This is the Italy that awaits us. They are already drawing up a black list of enemies of the homeland, in spite of those who said that fascism is another thing.

The white message on a black background says, “Resist”.

Saviano, who since 2006 has lived in hiding, emerging only under police escort due to several Mafia threats, wrote in the Guardian last weekend: “Meloni appears the most dangerous Italian political figure not because she explicitly evokes fascism or the practices of the black- shirted squadristi (militia), but because of her ambiguity.”

Updated at 10.59 BSTE

Viktor Orbán team says Meloni shares a ‘common vision’

Balázs Orbán, political director to Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said on Twitter:

Congratulations to Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini and (Forza Italia leader) Silvio Berlusconi on the elections today! In these difficult times, we need more than ever friends who share a common vision and approach to Europe’s challenges.”

Meloni has been repeatedly compared to Orbán, whose actions have led the European parliament to declare that Hungary was no longer a “full democracy”.

Updated at 10.39 BSTE

The papers in Italy this morning. All Meloni.

Front pages of Italian newpapers with photos of leader of Italian far-right party “Fratelli d’Italia” (Brothers of Italy) Giorgia Meloni, a day after her party came top in general elections. Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty ImagesFar right in Germany says left wing is now ‘lonely’ in EuropeKate Connolly

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has just released a statement, in which the party congratulators Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party:

We as the Alternative für Deutschland congratulate Giorgia Meloni on her election and hope for her that she will be the first woman at the top of an Italian government. Despite all the undemocratic warnings from the EU commission president von der Leyen and other politicians, the Italians have, like the Swedish Democrats before them, decided in favor of a political change. And that is completely their democratic right. The election success of the Fratelli d’Italia is a further victory for common sense. Germany, with its left-green traffic light coalition, is looking rather lonely in Europe right now.”

The statement is signed by Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, the co-leaders of the party which was founded in 2013 and first entered the German parliament in 2017.

Updated at 10.08 BSTE

Far right politicians in France congratulate MeloniKim Willsher

French politicians Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen have both congratulated Giorgia Meloni in Italy. Zemmour said it showed that the far right getting into power “is possible”.

Marine Le Pen tweeted: “Bravo to Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini for having resisted the threats of the anti-democratic and arrogant European Union and won this major victory.”

Marine le Pen in Paris, France. Photograph: Vincent Isore/ZUMA Press/REX/Shutterstock

Jordan Bardella, a leading member of the far-right Rassemblement National added that the result was “a lesson in humility” for the EU and spokes of “threats” by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

(Von der Leyen has spoken about the far right taking Europe in a “difficult direction”)

“No threat of any kind can stop democracy: the people of Europe are rising their heads and taking their destiny in hand,” Bardella tweeted along with French and Italian flag emojis.

The Elysée has not made any comment as yet. French President Emmanuel Macron was close with the former Italian PM, Mario Draghi, which meant there were tight diplomatic relations between the neighbors countries.

Europe1 radio pointed out that Meloni had “not stopped criticizing France” during her campaign, “particularly on the questions of immigration from Africa and Europe”.

Updated at 09.52 BSTE

An exit poll from Italian broadcaster Rai gave the rightwing coalition 41%-45% against 25.5%-29.5% for the leftwing bloc. The populist Five Star Movement was on 13.5%-17.5%.

Early official results from the Italian interior ministry confirm exit poll suggestions.

We have a live results tracker that you can see here. It will be automatically updated throughout the day.

French PM says ‘we will be vigilant’ on human rights after Italian election

After a far-right surge in Italy, the French prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, has said her country will be monitoring human rights, and particularly access to abortion.

“In Europe, we have certain values ​​and, obviously, we will be vigilant,” Borne told RMC Radio and BFM TV. “It is a human rights value and the respect of others, namely the right to have access to abortion, [that] should be upheld by all,” Borne added.

Borne said she did not want to comment directly on the “democratic choice of the Italian people”, but her comments will be seen as remarks on the rise of the Brothers of Italy party.

Their leader, Giorgia Meloni, looks set to become Italy’s first woman prime minister.

She has said she wants to “give to women who think abortion is their only choice the right to make a different choice”. Yet she has raised alarm among women’s rights advocates by saying she wants to “give to women who think abortion is their only choice the right to make a different choice”.

Updated at 09.15 BSTE

Oliver Holmes

Buongiorno, and welcome to our Italy election live blog.

It is Monday morning and Italy (as well as the rest of Europe) is waking up to news of what looks like a far-right takeover of Italian politics.

Giorgia Meloni has already claimed victory after exit polls gave her coalition a clear majority, putting her on course to create the most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.

Meloni’s party, Brothers of Italy, which has neofascist origins, is also set to scoop by far the biggest share of the votes within the coalition, which includes the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia, headed by Silvio Berlusconi .

Results will be coming in over the course of the day, as well as reactions and shock from the rest of the world.

I’m Oliver Holmes and I’ll be sending you all the latest updates.

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