A socio-economic analysis of last week’s Italian elections shows major advances for the Fratelli d’Italia party of PM Giorgia Meloni, with 39% of blue-collar workers backing the ruling conservative party.
The Italian premier, who has been in power for just under two years, easily triumphed in Sunday’s European election, with her party achieving 28.9% of the total vote in the first major electoral challenge of her premiership.
The positive results, which exceed even the 26% Meloni and Fratelli achieved when first elected in the 2022 parliamentary election, put the party in a kingmaker position among European populists and the EU establishment in the European Parliament.
The result was sweetened by a further study of Fratelli’s voter base, which showed it making major gains from the left-wing Democratic Party among Italian workers.
While greens and socialists remain disproportionately popular among 18 to 34-year-olds, Fratelli now maintains a 23-point lead against the socialists among Italian workers. The self-employed prefer deputy PM Matteo Salvini’s League party, while the left-wing populist Five Star Movement still has some support among the poorest, although 60% abstain from voting.
While second to the socialists, Fratelli still boasts a strong 21% support level among Italian 18 to 34-year-olds, in line with various other European electorates, including Germany and Poland, which recorded a spike in youth support for right-wing populists at the polls last week.
Running a personality-driven campaign where she was the lead candidate for her party, Meloni’s position in Italian and European politics has been strengthened by the EU elections, as Fratelli claimed 24 MEPs, quadrupling the number it won in 2019.
Meloni’s coalition partner, Lega, saw its vote drop by two-thirds to 9% as the Italian Right appears to be coalescing around Fratelli.
