Voting is closed in Italy, with an exit poll indicating that the far-right leader of a party with neo-fascist roots will become the country’s first female prime minister.
Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party won just over 4% in the 2018 election, but an exit poll indicated it would win 22-26% of the vote.
Overall, the right-wing coalition would have won between 41 and 45% of the vote, according to a Consorzio Opinio Italia poll for Rai.
The closest candidate was former Democratic Party Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s centre-left alliance, which apparently won 29.5% of the vote.
Sunday’s election could tip the country’s politics to the right at a critical time on the European continent, as countries grapple with energy prices and the war in Ukraine continues.
If she takes power, Ms Meloni will be both Italy’s first female prime minister and the first far-right politician to become head of government in a major eurozone economy.
The election came six months earlier after Mario Draghi’s pandemic unity government collapsed in late July.
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Ms Meloni is part of a right-wing alliance with Anti-Migrant League leader Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, the three-time prime minister who leads the Forza Italia party he created three decades ago.
“The center-right is clearly in the lead in both the lower house and the Senate! It’s going to be a long night, but even now I want to say thank you,” Salvini tweeted.
It could be some time before it is officially known who will be the next prime minister, with the process of forming a coalition expected to last at least until mid-October.
Early voters in Rome expressed concerns about Italian politics as a whole.
“I hope we see honest people, and it’s very difficult these days,” Adriana Gherdo said at a polling station in the city.
The election in the eurozone’s third-largest economy will be closely watched in Europe, given Ms Meloni’s criticism of “Brussels bureaucrats” and her links to other right-wing leaders.
She recently defended Hungary’s Viktor Orban after the European Commission recommended withholding billions of euros in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding and possible mismanagement of EU money.
