Why Italy is on verge of electing its first far-right leader since second world war

Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy draw on a vein of fascism in a country that - unlike Germany - has never had to confront its past

A hundred years after the rise of Italian fascism was heralded by Mussolini's 1922 march on Rome, the country is on the verge of electing a party with its roots in neo-fascism.

With just over a week to go until polling day, the smiling face of Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, is emblazoned on thousands of posters from the heel in the south to the Alps in the north.