MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The supposed victory of a center-right coalition in the Italian parliamentary election will make it possible to boost cooperation between Moscow and Rome, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told reporters on Monday.

"I have no doubt that given the election’s outcome, Russian-Italian relations will evolve constructively," he said. "Members of the coalition, as well as the Five Star Movement, which came second, call for strengthening partnership with Russia and removing the European Union’s illegal sanctions from our country," Slutsky added. He pointed out that members of the parties that were about to win the election "have visited Crimea and met with local authorities and residents, they have seen with their own eyes that the Peninsula was reunited with Russia based on the people’s free will."

The senior Russian lawmaker also said that "the preliminary results of the Italian parliamentary election come as no surprise." "In fact, they are in line with the European trends, when right-wing forces take leading positions. The success of Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party was easy to predict. I think, not only Italy’s future lies with this progressive politician, but he is also to play a role in the European political architecture that will be established in the years to come," Slutsky concluded.

According to preliminary results, the center-right coalition comprising Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, Lega (or League) led by Matteo Salvini and Fratelli d'Italia (or Brothers of Italy) headed by Georgia Meloni receives around 37% of the vote, while the anti-establishment Five Star Movement is in second place with 32%.