The results of the general election showed the centre-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, a right-wing political party with neo-fascist roots,[3][4][5] winning an absolute majority of seats in the Italian Parliament.

[16] Observers commented that the results shifted the geopolitics of the European Union, following right wing populist and far-right gains in France, Spain, and Sweden.

[30][31] The centre-right coalition, in which Matteo Salvini's League emerged as the main political force, won a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, while the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) led by Luigi Di Maio became the party with the largest number of votes.

[45][46] Many political analysts believe the no confidence motion was an attempt to force early elections to improve the League's standing in the Italian Parliament, ensuring Salvini could become the next Prime Minister.

On the same day, the national direction of the PD officially opened to a cabinet with the M5S,[48] based on pro-Europeanism, a green economy, sustainable development, the fight against economic inequality, and a new immigration policy.

[58] On 28 August, the PD's newly elected secretary Nicola Zingaretti announced at the Quirinal Palace his favourable position on forming a new government with the M5S, with Conte at its head.

[77] After negotiations to form a third Conte cabinet failed, Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, became Prime Minister on 13 February at the head of a national unity government composed of independent technocrats and politicians from the League, M5S, PD, FI, IV, and LeU.

[87] In the Italian presidential election held in late January 2022,[88][89][90] President Mattarella was re-elected, despite having ruled out a second term, after the governing parties asked him to do so when no other candidate was viable.

[95][96] Despite having voted in favour of military aid, the Five Star Movement, the League and Forza Italia later became increasingly critical of support to Ukraine, causing tensions in the majority.

[97] During summer 2022, rumours arose that M5S might withdraw its support of the national unity government, including allegations that Draghi privately criticized Conte and asked M5S founder Beppe Grillo to replace him.

[104] On 14 July, the M5S eventually revoked the support to the government of national unity regarding a decree concerning economic stimulus to contrast the 2021 energy crisis.

Within the centre-left coalition, the Democratic Party (PD) secretary Enrico Letta ruled out an alliance with Giuseppe Conte's Five Star Movement (M5S), which he had always advocated in the previous months.

[115][116] Conte and M5S declared themselves to be part of the progressive pole and to the left of PD;[117] their campaign centered around the minimum wage and in defense of the citizens' income against right-wing criticism.

[119][120] PD ran for a wealth tax, minimum wage, support for civil rights such as egalitarian marriage, a law protecting against sexual orientation discrimination (DDL Zan), ius scholae reform to allow children of immigrants who live and study in Italy to apply for citizenship, cannabis legalization, defense of the Constitution of Italy as an anti-fascist document, and on the lesser of two evils as the only coalition that could beat the right,[121][122] in large part due the electoral law, which Letta defined as the worst ever made.

[134] Meloni ran a campaign around the "God, country and family" slogan, downplayed FdI's post-fascist roots, and sought to promote her party as being mainstream conservative.

[9][21] On 29 July, the campaign was marked by the murder of Alika Ogorchukwu, a Nigerian migrant who was killed with bare hands and crutches by an Italian man in a street in Civitanova Marche.

[140] On 1 August, Luigi Di Maio and Bruno Tabacci presented their new party, Civic Commitment (IC), a centrist electoral list mainly composed by former members of M5S, which would be part of the centre-left coalition.

[142][143] On the same day, Gianluigi Paragone's Italexit and Pino Cabras's Alternativa officially announced the formation of a Eurosceptic joint list, proposing the candidacies of several anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown activists.

[144] Four days later, Alternativa dissolved the alliance due to allegations about the presence of neofascist candidates within Italexit's lists,[145] following an agreement between Paragone's party and CasaPound (CP).

[165] On 8 September, Letta was criticized by Meloni after he stated, at the annual meeting of the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, that "with the right's victory, Italy could become a B-class European country like Poland and Hungary.

[167] On 9 September, Federico Mollicone, senior member of FdI, was criticized after he demanded for a Peppa Pig episode briefly showing a lesbian couple to be censored.

[168] On 20 September, FdI sacked Calogero Pisano, a member and candidate that openly praised Adolf Hitler;[169][170] in an audio message, he expected to only be suspended for a few days.

On 23 August, some prominent leaders of the centre-right (Meloni, Salvini, Tajani, and Lupi) and of the centre-left (Letta and Di Maio) were jointly interviewed by Luciano Fontana during the Rimini Meeting, organized by the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation.

[199] Moreover, Fontana also interviewed the main parties' leaders at the Ambrosetti Forum on 4 September, and hosted a debate between Letta and Meloni on the website of Corriere della Sera, the newspaper of which he serves as director.

[202] By August 2022, the electoral reform was bogged down in the Chamber's Constitutional Affairs Commission and a proposal by M5S deputy Giuseppe Brescia had been presented to the Italian Parliament but by that time it was already dissolved for snap elections.

"[6] Emiliana De Blasio, adviser for diversity and inclusion at LUISS University in Rome, stated that Meloni is "not raising up at all questions on women's rights and empowerment in general".

[21] Observers, such as political scientist Giovanni Orsina, said that far-right supporters would be disappointed by a Meloni government because she is now part of the mainstream right like the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.

"[17] Prime ministers from various countries, including Viktor Orbán (Hungary),[9] Mateusz Morawiecki (Poland),[9] Petr Fiala (Czech Republic),[241] and Liz Truss (United Kingdom) congratulated Meloni,[9] as did far-right politicians Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour in France.

"[9] Giuseppe Conte, leader of the M5S, said he would lead an "uncompromising opposition" and commented: "We will be the outpost for the progressive agenda against inequalities, to protect families and businesses in difficulty, to defend the rights and values of our Constitution.

[289][290][291] Additionally, Berlusconi's views of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin, with whom he said he was rekindling their friendship and claimed to have received vodka as gift and exchanged letters,[292][293] during a group session with his own party were leaked through an audio.