PM's far-right party tops EU vote in Italy: projections

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right party won a decisive victory in European elections in Italy, securing at least 27 percent of the vote, according to early projections.

The centre-left Democratic Party came in second place with more than 23 percent, according to three projections published by broadcasters RAI, Mediaset and the La7 television channel.

Meloni had been expected to win, but 27 percent would be a particularly good result, surpassing the 26 percent her party won in Italian general elections in September 2022.

It represents a remarkable reversal from European Parliament elections in 2019 in Italy, when the then marginal post-fascist party secured just six percent of the vote.

Back then, it was Matteo Salvini's far-right, anti-immigration League party that triumphed with 34 percent. On Sunday, it was projected to secure around eight percent of the vote.

That would put them behind Forza Italia, the right-wing party founded by late ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, which was projected to have won around 10 percent of the vote.

The Five Star Movement of former premier Giuseppe Conte was predicted to have won around 11 percent.

Meloni had held up the European vote as a referendum on her personal leadership, asking voters to write simply "Giorgia" on their ballots.

She stood for election herself but will not take up her seat, as being an MEP is incompatible with national political office.

All eyes will be on what Meloni will do with her increased influence in Brussels.

She has been courted both by Ursula von der Leyen of the centre-right EPP group -- who is vying for a second term leading the powerful European Commission -- and France's far-right Marine Le Pen.

Le Pen's National Rally was projected to win around 33 percent in the elections, trouncing French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance and prompting him to call snap legislative elections.

Meloni's party is in one of two main far-right groups in the European Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), alongside Spain's Vox.

Le Pen is in the Identity and Democracy group, which also includes Salvini's League.

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