ROME — Italians voted Sunday on whether to
usher in the country’s first government led by the far right since
World War II, bringing euroskeptic populists to the heart of Europe.
اضافة اعلان
The Brothers of Italy party, headed by one-time
Mussolini supporter Giorgia Meloni, has led opinion polls and looks set to take
office in a coalition with the far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza
Italia parties.
Meloni, 45, who campaigned on a motto of “God,
country, and family”, hopes to become Italy’s first female prime minister.
Turnout was around 19 percent by 10am GMT, according
to the interior ministry, in line with the last elections in 2018, as large
queues formed outside voting stations.
“I’m playing to win, not just to take part,” Matteo
Salvini, head of the far-right League, told reporters as he went to cast his
ballot.
“I can’t wait to come back from tomorrow as part of
the government of this extraordinary country,” he added.
President Sergio Mattarella and Enrico Letta, leader
of the center-left Democratic Party, also voted early Sunday. Polls close at
21pm GMT.
Many voters are expected to pick Meloni, “the
novelty, the only leader the Italians have not yet tried”, Wolfango Piccoli of
the Teneo consultancy told AFP.
Brussels and the markets are watching closely, amid
concern that Italy — a founding member of the
EU — may be the latest country to
veer hard right, less than two weeks after the far right outperformed in
elections in Sweden.
If she wins,
Meloni will face challenges from rampant inflation to an energy crisis as
winter approaches, linked to the conflict in Ukraine.
The Italian economy, the third largest in the
eurozone, rebounded after the pandemic but is saddled with a debt worth 150
percent of gross domestic product.
‘Limited room for maneuver’
Meloni has dedicated her
campaign to trying to prove she is ready despite her party never before being
in power.
Brothers of Italy, which has roots in the
post-fascist movement founded by supporters of dictator
Benito Mussolini,
pocketed just four percent of the vote in 2018.
Meloni has moderated her views over the years,
notably abandoning her calls for Italy to leave the EU’s single currency.
However, she insists her country must stand up for
its national interests, backing Hungary in its rule of law battles with
Brussels.
Her coalition wants to renegotiate the EU’s
post-pandemic recovery fund, arguing that the almost 200 billion euros Italy is
set to receive should take into account the energy crisis aggravated by the
Ukraine war.
But “Italy cannot afford to be deprived of these
sums”, political sociologist Marc Lazar told AFP, which means Meloni actually
has “very limited room for maneuver”.
The funds are tied to a series of reforms only just
begun by outgoing Prime Minister
Mario Draghi, who called snap elections in
July after his national unity coalition collapsed.
Despite her euroskepticism, Meloni strongly supports
the EU’s sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, although her allies are another
matter.
Berlusconi, the billionaire former premier who has
long been friends with Vladimir Putin, faced an outcry this week after
suggesting the Russian president was “pushed” into war by his entourage.
‘Woke ideologies’
A straight-speaking Roman
raised by a single mother in a working-class neighborhood, Meloni rails against
what she calls “LGBT lobbies”, “woke ideology”, and “the violence of Islam”.
She has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of
migrants who arrive on Italy’s shores each year, a position she shares with
Salvini, who is currently on trial for blocking charity rescue ships when he
was interior minister in 2019.
The center-left Democratic Party says Meloni is a
danger to democracy.
It also claims her government would pose a serious
risk to hard-won rights such as abortion and will ignore global warming,
despite Italy being on the front line of the climate emergency.
On the economy, Meloni’s coalition pledges to cut
taxes while increasing social spending, regardless of the cost.
The last opinion polls two weeks before election day
suggested one in four voters backed Meloni.
However, around 20 percent of voters remain
undecided, and there are signs she may end up with a smaller majority in
parliament than expected.
In particular, support appears to be growing for the
populist Five Star Movement in the poor south.
The next government is unlikely to take office
before the second half of October.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
