Meloni’s star keeps shining; Schlein’s opposition party, PD, grabs top seat of EP’s S&D group

5 months ago 24

Unlike in other European countries like France, Austria, and Germany, where the sweeping gains of far-right parties shook the grounds of incumbent governments, Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni remained comfortably in the driver’s seat – with Fratelli d’Italia (ECR) bagging 28.87% of the votes as of 06:15 CET, when over 95% of the ballots had been screened.

Meloni hailed Sunday’s results as corroborating a vote that two years ago (when she won the country’s general elections) was just “a bet based on hope.”

“I am proud this nation will show up at the G7, in Europe, with the strongest governments of all” among its European peers, she told Italian TV channels shortly about two hours after polls closed at 23:00 CET.

Her Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, conversely, whose party Lega would sit to Fratelli d’Italia’s right at the European Parliament, within the far-right ID group, stopped at 9.16%.

While still higher than the 8.8% vote share it got during the country’s 2022 general elections in 2022, the result marks a deep plunge compared to the 34.3% victory the party snapped up at the previous European elections in 2019.

Salvini blamed Lega’s steep losses on “some oddities” and “uncomfortable internal circumstances” after the party’s own founder, Umberto Bossi, announced he would vote for Forza Italia (EPP) instead earlier on Sunday.

Meanwhile, also gloating as voters’ favourite runner-up was the leader of the centre-left opposition party Partito Democratico, or PD (S&D), Elly Schlein, who welcomed her party’s 24.06% as evidence of the most significant jump scored by any party since the 2022 political elections – when PD stood at 19.1%.

“We are closing the gap with Meloni’s party”, Schlein stated after the first count projections shortly after 01:00 CET. “The vote share of the opposition forces now surpasses that of the ruling coalition,” she added.

The PD’s positive result, which may earn it six fresh seats at the EP hemicycle, for a total of 23, means the Italian party is the new leading national delegation within the Socialists and Democrats group in Brussels, displacing Spain’s PSOE, which is set to lose one seat, to 22.

As for other Italian parties, the once anti-establishment Movimento Cinque Stelle (non-inscrits), led by former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, fell short of expectations to stop at 9.87%, down from 17.1% at the previous EU vote and from 15.4% at the 2022 national elections.

They currently do not belong to any parliamentary group, but there are rumours that the party may form a new group with Germany’s Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).

Meanwhile, the ruling government’s other coalition partner – Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia (EPP) – surpassed Lega with a 9.72% vote share. This has shifted the balance within Meloni’s alliance governing coalition.

Another relative winner of Sunday’s vote was the Green and Left Alliance, or AVS (which will join the ranks of both the Greens and the Left EP families), which outperformed polls that had placed them at around 4%, almost doubling its 2022 results (3.6%) at 6.61%.

With the party surpassing the 4% threshold that allows it to get any seat at the EU Parliament, Italian antifascist activist Ilaria Salis, the 34-years old teacher who faces up to 24 years in prison in Hungary for allegedly attacking three neo-Nazis last year, will be granted immunity due to her new role as MEP.

Nicola Fratoianni, leader of Sinistra Italiana, said at the AVS election committee in Rome: “We’ve heard many accusations of using candidacies for instrumental purposes. We did the right thing. Ilaria Salis is now an MEP.”

Notably, none of the parties that would have joined the Renew group at the EP made it through the 4% threshold, with former prime minister Matteo Renzi’s party Stati Uniti d’ Europa faring at a paltry 3.72%.

Overall, final voter turnout figures aligned with the broader European trend of declining confidence, at 49.66%, down from 56.12% in 2019. North-western voters showed the highest conviction, representing 55.1% of residents, while Southern regions and the islands (Sardinia and Sicily) weighed down on the national average, at 43.73% and 37.31%, respectively.

(Anna Brunetti, Alessia Peretti, Simone Cantarini)