The two-day parliamentary elections that ended on Monday failed to produce an outright winner.
Italy is facing political deadlock after the country’s latest general election ended on Monday, February 25, 2013 in what has been described as an extraordinary result, Euro News TV said.
With all domestic votes counted, Pier Luigi Bersani's centre-left bloc narrowly beat ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the Lower House of Parliament, but failed to secure a majority in the Senate, BBC reported. Under Italy’s political system, control of both houses is needed to govern.
The knife-edge election outcome gave the following results in the Chamber of Deputies or Lower House of Parliament: Pier Luigi Bersani's centre-left Democratic Party-led bloc, 29.54 per cent; Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom Party-led bloc, 29.18 per cent; Beppe Grillo's anti-austerity Five Star Movement, 25.55 per cent, and Mario Monti's Civic Choice movement, 10.56 per cent.
In the Senate or Upper House of Parliament, neither of the two biggest parties and their allies got close to the 158 seats needed to have a working majority. Latest figures showed the Democratic Party bloc winning about 113 seats or 31.63 per cent of the vote as against 116 seats or 30.72 per cent for the People of Freedom Party bloc. Five Star Movement took 54 seats and Civic Choice, 18.
A complicating factor in the election is the extraordinary performance of the protest movement led by the comedian, Beppe Grillo. One in four voters backed the movement that was built on disgust against the political class. Many of its new Members of Parliament are young and inexperienced. There will now be a period of horse-trading to see whether any party can build a coalition to govern the country. The centre-left will try first to form a coalition, but many believe that within months, there will have to be another election. Italy is the third largest economy in the Euro zone, and already, there is anxiety in the markets as to where the results leave the country’s economic reforms.
