WARSAW/BUDAPEST - Hard-right leader Giorgia Meloni's victory at Sunday's Italian elections has been met by loud celebration by the rest of the European far-right — and a more muted worry on the liberal and leftwing flank of politics.

In Warsaw and Budapest, the prime ministers were quick to congratulate the new Italian leader, who — they hope — will back them in their battles with the EU over civil rights, rule of law and democratic backsliding.

Meloni's Brothers of Italy party — a member of the conservative rightwing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) alliance — came top with 26 percent of the vote, ahead of her closest rival Enrico Letta from the centre-left, based on the first results.

The far-right bloc, led by former fascist Georgia Meloni, barrelled to victory in Italian elections on Sunday with up to 45 percent of the vote.

The rise of far-right politician Giorgia Meloni has left many outside Italy asking how her brand of what many argue is fascism can achieve such prominence in a country that has experienced life under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. The answer can be traced back to a recent normalisation of reactionary politics.

In truth, the existence of a far-right government in Italy is not entirely without precedent in the post-war era. Between 1994 and 2011 a speciously labelled “centre-right” alliance – consisting of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI), various iterations of a small Christian democratic or centrist wing, Umberto Bossi’s Northern League (LN) and Gianfranco Fini’s National Alliance (AN) – governed Italy four times. The National Alliance was the predecessor party to Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.