Italy’s vote for the European Parliament did not produce the far-right wave that polls had hinted at across the bloc. It produced something narrower and more telling: a government that kept its voters while its own coalition partners lost theirs.
Italians cast ballots on June 8 and 9 for the 76 seats Italy holds in the 720-seat chamber. With 96% of ballots counted, Reuters reported that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy had won 28.8% of the vote. That is more than four times its 2019 EU result and above the 26% it took in the 2022 national election. Il Sole 24 Ore noted that Meloni had set 26% as her bar for calling it a victory. The party finished first in every constituency except the south and cleared 30% across the northern regions and the centre. In Veneto it reached 37.6%. Eunews put its delegation at 24 members.
Winners and losers
The Democratic Party came second with 24.1%, beating the 22.7% of the last European vote. Il Sole 24 Ore said that for the new secretary, Elly Schlein, 20% had been the survival line. “It is an extraordinary result for us,” she said, calling the PD the party that had grown most since 2022. Its 20 elected members will form, with Spain’s PSOE, the biggest delegation in the Socialists and Democrats group, Eunews reported.
The Five Star Movement fell to about 10%, from 15.4% in the last general election. For Giuseppe Conte that meant, as he put it, that the vote “forces us to reflect internally”. Turnout in the South, a historical stronghold, was only 43.7%, and the Movement collected 16.8% there.
Inside Meloni’s own coalition the picture split. Forza Italia, under Antonio Tajani, came close to 10% and edged past Matteo Salvini’s League, which AFP said managed just 8.5% after taking more than 34 percent in 2019. Eunews counted the League’s MEPs as dropping from 29 to 8. The Greens and Left Alliance cleared the threshold with over 6%, while Calenda’s Action and the pro-EU United States of Europe slate both missed the 4% bar, so neither sends anyone to Strasbourg.
Fewer voters, stronger leader
Only 49.69% of eligible Italians voted, against 56.09% in 2019, according to the final Interior Ministry data cited by Il Sole 24 Ore. Eunews described it as a postwar low.
Meloni spoke early on Monday from her party headquarters. “I am proud that Italy will present itself to the G7, to Europe with the strongest government of all,” she said. Giovanni Orsina of LUISS university told AFP she came out stronger, because her government had not lost consensus, and because, with far-right parties growing, she now sits in a pivotal spot between them and the European People’s Party.
Sources
- Italy's PM Meloni comes out on top in EU vote, strengthening her hand (Reuters via Japan Times)
- Italy's Premier Meloni gets domestic, European boost from EU election win (AFP via Arab News)
- European 2024: Fratelli d'Italia confirmed first party, PD second (Eunews)
- FdI and PD win, FI overtakes League, M5S defeated (Il Sole 24 Ore)
- European elections: Italy begins vote for next EU parliament (DW live)
Sources
- Italy – Home | 2024 European election results
- National results Italy – 2024 European election results
