Salvini's far-right party tops Italy's EU election polls

A jubilant Matteo Salvini kissed the cross of rosary as he thanked “those up there” for his far-right party’s victory in the European parliamentary elections.

Provisional results early on Monday morning gave the League a resounding 34.33% win, beating expectations and cementing its position as Italy’s biggest party.

Related: How Matteo Salvini pulled Italy to the far right

“I didn’t entrust the immaculate Mary with a vote or party success,” Salvini told reporters in Milan. “But with the future and destiny of a continent.”

Salvini thanked supporters on his social media feeds soon after hearing the League was ahead in exit polls, posting a picture of himself holding a card with the message: “No 1 party in Italy, thank you.” On the shelves behind him were a “Make America great again” baseball cap as well as pictures of Jesus Christ and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Mattia Diletti, a politics professor at Rome’s Sapienza University, said Italy had delivered the “most Trumpian” result in Europe. “I knew the League would win, but not by this much, we are now a province of Trumpism,” he said. “Italians were asking for strong feelings and emotion, to feel pride again, and like [Donald] Trump, that’s what Salvini gave.”

Salvini also posted a flurry of photos of him on the phone doing live interviews throughout the night as he celebrated his party going from 6.2% in the 2014 EU ballot to leading in Italy. “Five years ago, the papers wrote about our extinction, now here we are, the No 1 party,” he said.

But he said the festivities would only last “a few minutes” as “now is the time for responsibility”. He said: “Millions of Italians have entrusted us with a historic mission. That is to bring to the centre of the European debate the right to have stable jobs, the right to healthcare, to have babies.”

Salvini made demographics a key component of his campaign as part of a nativist vision to reverse Italy’s shrinking population and protect Italian identity. Along with the usual anti-immigration rhetoric, he also tapped into Catholic sensitivities while making an enemy of Pope Francis, often mocking the pontiff for calling on people to help migrants.

The League’s success will affect the balance of power in its already fragile national coalition with the Five Star Movement (M5S), which has gone from being Italy’s leading party to capturing just 17.7% of the EU vote, behind the centre-left Democratic party, which took about 22%.

Salvini said the result would not provoke a government crisis, although it would inevitably face more clashes as he uses his increased power to push for key League policies, such as the autonomy of wealthy northern regions where the majority of supporters are based. He has also pledged to try to change EU fiscal policy in order to be able to fulfil the promise of a flat tax.

Salvini campaigned fiercely across Italy. He also performed a speech from the same balcony where the dictator Benito Mussolini watched his opponents being executed, belittled protesters, quoted fascist sympathisers and posed for selfies with supporters.

“The League is like a big family,” Rita Pilizzardi, a long-time supporter, said at a rally of European nationalists in Milan last week. “Salvini has restored pride back to Italy.”

Related: EU election results 2019: across Europe

But while Salvini has triumphed at home, it is not yet clear if his hopes for a grand far-right European coalition made up of about 11 parties will materialise.

The far right, as expected, made strong gains in Hungary and France, where Salvini’s close ally Marine Le Pen’s National Rally narrowly topped the polls. Elsewhere across the bloc nationalist parties performed modestly amid a rise in support for green and pro-EU parties. And while the planned coalition unites over immigration, Islamophobia and hatred of the EU, differences in opinion, such as Russia, hamper it.

“This is really the big problem,” said Massimiliano Panarari, a politics professor at Rome’s Luiss University. “They will try to form a group but there are too many differences, it’s more of a communication strategy for them.”