ITALY faces a hung parliament after no single party or coalition gained anything close to a majority in yesterday’s election.

With most of the votes counted today, the single largest bloc was a right-wing coalition consisting of the far-right League, convicted fraudster Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, and the smaller far-right Brothers of Italy and Us With Italy.

Before the vote it had been imagined that Mr Berlusconi’s party would be the main force — though there had been intra-coalition squabbles — but Matteo Salvini’s League came first with 17 per cent to Forza Italia’s 14.

The biggest single party was the Five Star Movement, a supposedly anti-Establishment group without an ideological base that has espoused a whole series of policies with the only consistency being its habit of making U-turns over them.

European media reporting has made much of its earlier pledge to hold a referendum on eurozone membership — something that was dropped before the election campaign.

Five Star has insisted that it will not cobble together a coalition with either the right or the “centre-left,” which is anchored around the Democrats, who achieved just 18.7 per cent after five years of forcing through austerity measures.

It is still to be seen if the “no coalition” pledge holds — the Five Star mayor of Rome was very quick to fill her cabinet with supposed opponents.

Mr Salvini, for his part, has insisted that the League won’t build any “strange coalitions.”

He said the right-wing bloc, and his League in particular, should have the first crack at forming a government.

He maintains the League is not a fascist party, saying: “While some were doing anti-fascist marches in the absence of fascists, we were preparing the future.”

There has been a notable rise in support for fascism in Italy, including attacks by supporters of right-wing parties on black people and refugees, as well as attacks on left-wing social centres.

Mr Salvini has pledged that his first act as prime minister would be to round up and expel 500,000 refugees, and the League has adopted many policies from avowedly fascist groups.

Five Star candidates have also campaigned against refugees, with one demanding “more tourists, less migrants,” and party leader Luigi di Maio accusing refugee charities of running a “taxi service” across the Mediterranean.

But Mr Salvini insists the League’s economic policies were the main driver of its result. They include a regressive flat tax and deep cuts to government spending.