ROME, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The Eurosceptic League led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini emerged as Italy's largest party after European Parliament elections held here on Sunday, exit polls suggested.
The anti-immigrant party won 27 to 31 percent of the vote, according to projections by three different pollsters unveiled by state TV broadcaster RAI.
This would mark a huge leap compared to 6.15 percent earned by the League in the previous European elections in 2014.
Center-left Democratic Party (PD), a major opposition force in the country with pro-European stance, followed with 20.5 to 24.5 percent, and populist Five Star Movement (M5S) came third with 18.5 to 22.5 percent.
Center-right Forza Italia party earned 8 to 12 percent, while another two minor contenders -- far-right party Brothers of Italy and centrist More Europe -- would struggle to reach the four-percent threshold required to enter the European parliament.
If proved by final results, these exit polls would come as quite unexpected for the Eurosceptic M5S, which is part of the current coalition government with the League and was believed to gather the second-best electoral result.
In case the center-left PD will be confirmed as the second largest party after the League, the stability of the Italian government might face impact in the following months.
With the vote count still ongoing, however, political leaders were cautious in their first comments on Sunday night.
Matteo Salvini posted a picture on his Facebook account holding a board with the writing "First party in Italy, thank you."
The projected result was seen as "historical" by the League's Lower House Speaker Riccardo Molinari. "It is the first time ever the League is Italy's largest party," ANSA news agency quoted Molinari as saying.
The parliamentary leader specified the League would not "use this vote to open a government crisis," ANSA also reported.
The PD's Deputy Secretary Andrea Orlando stressed the vote confirmed the party could serve as a solid alternative to populist forces.
"Caution is necessary, as we talk about exit polls," Orlando told local media at the party's headquarters.
"Yet, so far it seems (to be) an important result, considering that only one year ago we were lagging behind the populist M5S by over 10 points."
As the fourth most populous country in the European Union (EU), Italy had to elect 76 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), which counts 751 seats overall.
Three of the Italian newly-elected lawmakers will take their seats later this year, only after Britain leaves the Union, thus allowing its seats in the assembly to be redistributed among the remaining 27 member states of the bloc.
Polling stations in Italy opened at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and closed at 11 p.m. (2200 GMT) local time. Some 50.9 million people were eligible to vote out of a 60.3-million population, according to the Interior Ministry.
Official results are expected early on Monday.
