Politics a family affair for Italy's far-right leader Giorgia Meloni

Meloni as a teen praised Benito Mussolini

Giorgia Meloni's mother Anna Paratore has a keen interest in politics

A like-minded sister, a brother-in-law tipped for government and a campaigning mother -- politics is a family affair for Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, even if her partner votes left.

The 45-year-old is on course to become the first woman to be Italy's prime minister after her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, triumphed in Sunday's general election.

Meloni is very close with her older sister Arianna, who like her was involved in politics from a young age and who Meloni described as "the most important person in my life" before her daughter Ginevra was born in 2016.

Talking to La Stampa daily after the election, Arianna described her sister as "very brave and very determined" and a "perfectionist".

The sisters were brought up in the working-class Rome neighbourhood of Garbatella by their mother, Anna Paratore, who has herself a keen interest in politics.

After the elections, her mother -- a romantic novelist who has been an enthusiastic supporter of her daughter's career -- dismissed as "nonsense" concern about Meloni's radical past.

"I rejoice in her success, but I don't know if I would have wished her all this," she told Corriere della Sera newspaper, noting the challenges ahead.

Paratore brought up her daughters alone after their father walked out when Meloni was very young, moving to the Spanish Canary Islands.

Meloni also wrote about the absence of her father, saying it left "perhaps a deeper wound than a father who dies... because when he leaves you are forced to deal with his ghost".

The day after Sunday's vote, she posted on Instagram a note from six-year-old Ginevra, saying: "Dear mummy, I am so happy that you won. I love you so much!"

She recounted in her book how he took away the remains of a banana she had been eating during a commercial break before she went back on air.

Giambruno -- who the press note would become Italy's "First Gentleman" if Meloni becomes premier -- also votes for the left, she has admitted in interviews.

"I have heard this nonsense very often," she wrote in her book.

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