Editorial: Italy turns to the right
Italians have voted decisively in favour of a right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy. The centre-right alliance of parties together got almost 44 per cent of the popular vote, which, thanks to Italy’s mixed electoral system, has given them a comfortable majority of seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The centre-left coalition of parties, dominated by the Democratic Party, got 26 per cent of the vote, while the 5-Star Movement got 15.43 per cent and a centrist bloc got 7.79 per cent. The failure of these parties to unite as a bloc undoubtedly paved the way for the right-wing alliance to sweep to victory. This new Italian coalition government will certainly be the most right-wing in the country’s history. Brothers of Italy has neofascist roots and a very conservative social policy, although Meloni has made it clear that the Italian right has long dissociated itself from fascism. And the League, another member of the alliance, led by Matteo Salvini, is a right-wing Eurosceptic populist party which has taken a hard line on immigration. The other coalition member, the centre-right Forza Italia, led by Silvio Berlusconi, is the...