Tony Iwobi, whose party has been accused of stirring up xenophobia in Italy, was elected in the industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy -- a major immigration hub.
"It is with great excitement that I can tell you I have been elected senator... A new adventure is about to begin," Iwobi said on Facebook today following Sunday's elections.
Born in Gusau in northern Nigeria but living in Italy since the 1970s, Iwobi has been a supporter of the League for more than two decades and used the campaign slogan #StopInvasion -- a reference to the more than 690,000 migrants who have landed on Italian shores from North Africa since 2013.