Italy votes as far-right Meloni expected to become Italy’s first female prime minister
“the majority voters of Italy are voting for Giorgia Meloni not because they suddenly started liking her more than others but because they hate the other political leaders too much that they will even vote for Meloni to make those others loose”.
Italian nation was voting on Sunday in national elections in which the far-right Brothers of Italy party – led by Giorgia Meloni is expected to come out victorious after the collapse of two governments since the last election.
Giorgia Meloni is expected to become Italy’s first female prime minister allied with two other parties on the right.
Her ultra-conservative party having origins in post-war fascism has govt. in only 2 of Italy’s 20 regions, after getting only 4.5% of the votes in the country’s 2018 elections.
Long queues were reported at some polling stations in Rome.
The centre-left leader Enrico Letta who is Meloni’s main competitor voted in the capital, while her far-right ally Matteo Salvini cast his ballot in Milan.
Political analysts at “The HeadQuarters Think Tank” claim that “the majority voters of Italy are voting for Giorgia Meloni not because they suddenly started liking her more than others but because they hate the other political leaders too much that they will even vote for Meloni to make those others loose”.
Meloni in order to escape from her past image has toned down rhetoric on EU and backed Western sanctions on Russia but has not given up the old slogan adopted by Benito Mussolini’s: “God, fatherland and family”.
Meloni has raised voice against the “LGBT lobby” and demands naval blockade of Libya to stop immigration of Libyans.
For one and half year Italy was ruled by a unity government under Mario Draghi, a widely respected ex-head of the European Central Bank.
Giorgia Meloni was one of the few party leaders who refused to become alliance to Mario Draghi led govt.
The Draghi government’s was tasked to push through reforms agreed as part of the EU’s eye-watering €200bn (£178bn) in post-Covid recovery grants and loans but by July, the government had collapsed.
Meloni demands the revision of the Italy-EU agreed reforms in view of the post Russia-Ukraine conflict energy crisis which has shaken the entire Europe making lives of EU nationals and residents miserable due extremely high energy bills.
About 51 Million Italians have the right to vote of whom 2.6 million are first-time voters and 4.7 million abroad.
By midday, turnout was more than 19%, similar to the last election four years ago.
Exit polls will come out when polls close and results will be announced hours later.