Far-right Italian politician Giorgia Meloni is striking a moderate tone in her first comments after preliminary results show her party set to give Italy its most right-wing government since World War II.

Brothers of Italy party leader Ms Meloni, 45, said she would strive to unite her country if she was tasked with forming the next cabinet.

“If we are called to govern this nation, we will do it for everyone, we will do it for all Italians and we will do it with the aim of uniting the people [of this country],” she said at the party’s Rome headquarters.

“Italy chose us. We will not betray [the country], as we never have.”

As polls in the run-up to Sunday’s vote indicated her as the likely winner, Ms Meloni moderated her far-right message to reassure the European Union and other international partners.

“This is the time for being responsible,” Ms Meloni said, appearing on television and describing the situation for Italy and the European Union as “particularly complex”.

Projections based on a partial vote count on Monday showed Ms Meloni and her nationalist party well positioned to give Italy its first far-right-led government since WWII.

“Italy moves to the right,” Italian daily La Stampa headlined its front page on Monday.

Forming Italy’s next ruling coalition with the help of right-wing allies could take weeks but if Ms Meloni succeeds, she will become the country’s first female prime minister.

Her main campaign allies and likely coalition partners are anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini and conservative former Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Projections based on more than one-fifth of votes counted from Sunday’s ballot suggest Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neo-fascist roots, would win some 25 per cent of the vote.

That compared to some 19 per cent for the closest challenger, the centre-left Democratic Party of former Premier Enrico Letta.

Ms Meloni’s meteoric rise in the European Union’s third-largest economy and strong showing in the election heartened her allies in Europe, intent on shifting politics sharply to the right.

Fellow Euroskeptic politicians were among the first to celebrate. Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki congratulated Ms Meloni in a tweet and French politician Marine Le Pen’s party hailed the result as a “lesson in humility” to the EU.

Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s far-right Vox opposition party, celebrated Ms Meloni’s lead, tweeting that “millions of Europeans are placing their hopes in Italy”.

She “has shown the way for a proud and free Europe of sovereign nations that can co-operate on behalf of everybody’s security and prosperity”, Mr Abascal said.

The result caps a remarkable rise for Ms Meloni, whose party won only 4 per cent of the vote in the last national election in 2018. This time around, it was forecast to emerge as Italy’s largest group with 22 to 26 per cent.

But it was not a ringing endorsement, with voter turnout of 64.1 per cent down from 74 per cent four years ago – a record low number in a country that has historically enjoyed a high level of voter participation.

Italy has a history of political instability.

The next prime minister will lead the country’s 68th government since 1946 and face a host of problems, notably soaring energy costs and growing economic headwinds.

The election was triggered by party infighting that brought down prime minister Mario Draghi’s broad national unity government in July.

The new, slimmed-down parliament will not meet until October 13, when the head of state will meet party leaders to decide the shape of the new government.