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Far-Right Brothers of Italy set to cement its place as country’s most popular party

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Less than a decade ago, the party could marshal just two per cent of the vote, but that has now rocketed to around 22 per cent. However, they currently hold only 37 of 630 seats in the Italian parliament, and control 79 of 897 regional councils.

Brothers of Italy – Fratelli d’Italia in Italian – has comprehensively eclipsed the other big party on the Right, The League.

The reversal of fortunes is striking. At the European parliamentary elections in 2019, the League clinched 34 per cent of the vote, but that has now dropped to just 15 per cent.

The two parties have agreed that whichever one clinches the most votes should have primacy in the formation of a government, meaning that Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, could be Italy’s first female prime minister.

She strenuously denies she is an extremist and avoids all mention of fascism and Italy’s dark totalitarian past under Benito Mussolini.

Meloni staunchly opposed to taking more migrants

In an interview published on Friday, she was asked whether her early membership of the Movimento Sociale, the successor to the Fascist party, was a decisive element in her identity.

“No, I don’t believe so. Anyone who has a minimum of common sense and intellectual honesty cannot seriously argue that I am a danger to democracy. Maybe not everyone agrees with my proposals but they are respectable and they should be respected.”

She is vague on exactly what those proposals are. Like the League, she is staunchly opposed to taking in any more migrants and refugees who cross the Mediterranean from North Africa.

Her dog whistle messaging about “La Patria” or the Mother Country is seen as hostile to integration and multiculturalism.

While eschewing Fascist symbols herself, she has often been associated with supporters who deify Mussolini and are not afraid to give the stiff-armed Fascist salute at rallies.

Brothers of Italy has managed to overtake the League in part because the latter decided to join the broad governing coalition led by Mario Draghi, the prime minister, thus compromising its independence.

Brothers of Italy, in contrast, emerged as the country’s sole opposition party and was able to claim it has preserved its integrity.

League leader damaged by pro-Moscow stance

Both parties have moderated their positions on Europe and neither is calling for Italy’s exit from the EU or the euro.

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League, has been damaged by his pro-Moscow stance.

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