“The time for patriots has arrived,” Italian premier Giorgia Meloni told supporters of the nationalist Vox party ahead of the general election in Spain this Sunday. In a speech delivered remotely from Rome to a packed rally in Valencia, the leader of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party framed Sunday’s vote as one that could “change the direction of European politics,” fundamentally altering the balance of power on the continent.

“In Italy, as in Finland, Sweden, Poland, and the Czech Republic, we have shown that patriots can govern,” she claimed, referring to other parties in her continent-wide European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) alliance that have won high office in recent times. Now, she said, “it is crucial that on July 23 a conservative patriotic alternative is established [in Spain].”

Final polling before Sunday’s vote suggests a government along such lines is indeed the most likely outcome. The combined vote share of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) and Vox is predicted to reach between 46 and 48 percent — a historic high for the Spanish right, putting the two parties on the brink of an absolute majority. El País’s final poll has them three seats short, with PP leading the center-left Socialists (PSOE) 32.9 percent to 28.7 percent (or 135 seats to 110) and Vox tying the left-wing Sumar party at around 13.5 percent (or between 36 and 38 seats each). Given such an outcome, the right-wing bloc would probably be able to count on the support of a small number of regional MPs from Coalición Canaria and Teruel Existe to secure a thin majority.