World leaders promise vigilance on human rights as far right win in Italy

Marine Le Pen, pictured with Matteo Salvini, congratulated the coalition poised to take power in Italy ‘for having resisted the threats of an anti-democratic and arrogant European Union by winning this great victory’. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images

France and the US have stressed the importance of Italy’s continued commitment to human rights as Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy party look set to lead a coalition government following Sunday’s general election.

By Monday afternoon, almost final results showed the Brothers of Italy finishing first with around 26% of the vote, leaving it poised to govern and prompting congratulations and expressions of delight from far-right politicians around the world, including from the strongly Eurosceptic governing parties of Hungary and Poland.