Italy’s parliamentary election on Sunday is expected to be a historic moment, with the country’s first female prime minister at the helm of its most radical government since World War II.

More than 50 million Italians are headed to the polls on Sunday to elect their parliament, where, barring any surprises, the far-right should win and, in an unprecedented fashion, propose a prime minister to succeed Mario Draghi, AFP reports. .

Polling stations open at 05:00 GMT (08:00 Romanian time) and close at 21:00 GMT, so the first exit polls should give a fairly clear picture of the results.

Polls consistently show a right-wing coalition led by Brothers of Italy, including Matteo Salvini’s League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Power of Italy, on course for an outright victory.

The favorite to become the first female head of government in Italian history is Giorgia Meloni, president of the Fratelli d’Italia (Fratelli d’Italia, FDI), a political movement with post-fascist DNA, an image she is trying to “wash away”.

• Italy is preparing to enter under the sign of populism

Who is Georgia Maloney?

At the age of 45, Georgia Maloney is rising in the polls and her party is credited with around 25% of the vote in the September 25 parliamentary election.

In the 2018 legislative elections, the FDI had to settle for just over 4% of the vote, but since then Maloney has managed to catalyze around him the discontent and frustration of many Italians who say they are overwhelmed by the “dictation” of Brussels, the expensive life and the uncertain future that awaits children .

His motto is “God, Fatherland, Family” and his priorities are closing the borders to protect Italy from Islamization, revising European treaties so that Italy regains control of its destiny, fighting the “LGBT lobby” and “winter demography”, experienced by a country where the average age is the highest among industrialized countries, slightly behind Japan. On October 6, 2016, he condemned the “ongoing ethnic replacement in Italy” on Facebook, as did other European far-right groups.

Maloney and his party are descendants of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist party formed after World War II. At 19, he told France 3 that dictator Benito Mussolini was a “good politician.” Although she has to manage a part of the electoral base that identifies with that past, Maloney knows that to win she must please the moderate wing of her political family. “If I were a fascist, they would say I am,” she defended herself in a recent interview with the British magazine The Spectator.

The narrative he is promoting is “contrary to the facts,” according to the center-left daily La Repubblica, which points the finger at a section of the party’s inner circle and electoral base that remains sensitive to its roots.

Striking a perfect balance, the Italian politician even today admits that Mussolini “achieved a lot”, while attributing to him the “mistakes”: anti-Jewish laws, entry into the war, authoritarianism. At the same time, he wants to clarify that in the ranks of the party “there is no place for those nostalgic for fascism, racism and anti-Semitism.”

Born in Rome on January 15, 1977, Giorgia Maloney became an activist in student associations classified as far-right at the age of 15, working as a nanny or waitress. In 1996, he headed the association of high school students Azione Studentesca, whose emblem is the Celtic cross.

In 2006, she became a deputy and vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies. Two years later, she was appointed Minister of Youth Affairs in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government.

Then persistently watch TV. Her youth, courage and way of expressing herself make her a good guest in the media. Still reticent about her private life, she understood that at least as much as the ideas, the personality of a beautiful and blond young woman in a still very macho Italy was tempting. “I’m Georgia, I’m a woman, I’m a mother, I’m Italian, I’m a Christian,” she told supporters in Rome in 2019 in an impassioned speech that became famous. Lives with his partner, a TV journalist, has a daughter born in 2006.

At the end of 2012, tired of the discord that was grinding the right, she, together with other dissidents from Silvio Berlusconi’s party, founded Fratelli d’Italia and chose the opposition.

When Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, formed a cabinet of national unity in February 2021 to lead Italy out of the medical and economic crisis, Giorgia Maloney refused to take part. “Italy needs a free opposition,” she said at the time. In the name of this freedom, which is synonymous with sovereignty, Atlanticist Georgia Maloney condemned the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine from the first day.

Key players in the Italian elections

Georgia Maloney, 45 years old. The former far-right activist in Rome has boosted her party to nearly 25 percent from just 4 percent in the last election in 2018. Her support for NATO and Western sanctions against Russia helped ease concerns about her suitability for the job. the prime minister.

Matteo Salvini, 49 years old. The League leader, a former home secretary with a hard line on immigration, has been overshadowed by Maloney in recent months.

Silvio Berlusconi, 85 years old. The former prime minister, who has health problems and numerous scandals, remains a major player in the right-wing alliance, even if Forza Italia is now a junior partner.

Enrico Letta, 56. DP leader and former prime minister. His failure to form a stable coalition of center-left parties led to political defeat.

Giuseppe Conte, 58 years old. Leader of the 5-Star Movement. A prime minister from 2018 to 2011, he sparked outrage when his party withdrew its support for Draghi’s government in July, sparking a rift that led to snap elections. His strategy was partially justified by the increase in the 5-star rating, but the party still faces a period of opposition.

Sources: AFP, Reuters, Agerpres