February 26, 2013 -- Updated 1610 GMT (0010 HKT)
Italy faces a period of uncertainty and political horse trading Tuesday
after parliamentary elections left no party in a clear position to form a
government. FULL STORY
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'CHAOTIC UNCERTAINTY'
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PARLIAMENTARY PARALYSIS?
February 26, 2013 -- Updated 1644 GMT (0044 HKT)
Changing Italy from the outside
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: "We weren't able to see through to the end and win," Berlusconi says of election
- Parliamentary election results bring fears about weak government, economic woes
- "Nothing could be worse for Europe," analyst James Walston says of the stalemate
- A quarter of votes in the lower house go to a protest movement led by an ex-comedian
Rome (CNN) -- Italy faces a period of uncertainty
and political horse trading Tuesday after parliamentary elections left
no party in a clear position to form a government.
The center-left coalition
headed by Pier Luigi Bersani won by a narrow margin in Italy's lower
house of parliament, according to final figures released by the Interior
Ministry.
But Bersani's coalition,
with 29.54% of the vote, finished less than half a percentage point
ahead of the anti-austerity center-right coalition headed by
controversial three-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, which
garnered 29.18%.
It was a similar story in
Italy's upper house, where the lack of a clear majority means that no
one has a firm enough mandate to govern the country.
Changing Italy from the outside
Italy's first hung parliament?
Italy's election forecasts interim govt.
Assault on Italy's status quo
Final results showed the center-left winning the Senate with 31.63% of the vote, compared with the center-right's 30.72% -- an outcome that points to stalemate because of the way Senate seats are distributed.
"This is a case of gridlock," said James Walston of the American University of Rome. "Nothing could be worse for Europe."
International concern is
high that Italy -- the third-largest economy in the eurozone and the
eighth-biggest in the world -- could face fresh elections if no
coalition government can be formed.
In any case, a weak
government would probably struggle to push through the tough reforms
many observers feel are needed to get the economy back on track.
Symbolizing Italians' own
unhappiness with austerity and their political leaders, a quarter of
the vote in the lower house went to the anti-establishment Five Star
protest movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo, who has said he won't
join forces with any established political parties.
A bloc led by Mario
Monti, the former head of a technocrat government that steered Italy
through the worst of the eurozone crisis last year, trailed badly in
fourth place.
Markets reacted
negatively to the uncertainty Tuesday, with fears about the eurozone
crisis coming once more to the fore after months during which confidence
had grown.
Even if Bersani can form
a workable coalition, governing will be very difficult, and investors
are concerned that a stalemate in the Senate could undermine the
progress Italy has made in overhauling its troubled economy.
European markets, including Milan, were sharply lower in morning trading, while Asian markets also retreated.
U.S. stocks fell Monday
amid the concerns about Italy, with the Dow and S&P 500 suffering
their biggest one-day declines of the year. U.S. stock futures were
indicating a rebound for stocks at the open on Tuesday.
Voter turnout was lower
than anticipated Sunday, the first day of balloting, down from 62.55% in
2008 to 55.17% this year, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.
Weather, in part,
appeared to cause the lower voter turnout, the news agency said. It was
snowing in portions of northern Italy and raining in the southern part
of the country.
Alliance-building
Italy's political system encourages the forming of alliances.
But if neither Bersani
nor Berlusconi can build a strong enough coalition to govern, Italy
could face another round of elections.
The center-left alliance dominated by Bersani's Democratic Party also includes the more left-wing Left Ecology Freedom party.
It was widely assumed
ahead of the vote that the center-left would join forces with Monti's
bloc, but its disappointing showing means that even together, they
cannot command a majority in the upper house.
Bersani held a clear lead in polling in the weeks ahead of the vote but saw it slip away in the final days of the campaign.
Walston, the analyst,
said ahead of the vote that the left had suffered from a lack of
leadership, which prevented it from putting forward a clear picture.
Bersani, 61, comes across as "bluff and homespun, and that's part of his
appeal -- or not, depending on your point of view," said Walston.
The center-right
alliance led by Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, or PdL, in
coalition with the right-wing, anti-immigration Northern League, made up
significant ground in the final days of campaigning.
Berlusconi gave
conflicting signals as to whether he was running for the premiership,
indicating that he would seek the job if his coalition won, but
contradicting that on other occasions.
In a phone interview
Tuesday with Italian journalist and TV host Maurizio Belpietro, he said
everyone had tried their best to help their country.
"The difference this time is that we weren't able to see through to the end and win," Berlusconi said.
He acknowledged that the confused result has done nothing to help market confidence.
But, he added, "I don't
think Monti will be able to form any type of coalition with his policy
of austerity and his dangerous economic policies that have hurt Italy."
Unless either Bersani or -- even less likely -- Berlusconi can persuade Grillo to enter an alliance, their options are limited.
Grillo, the 64-year-old
known as the "clown prince" of Italian politics, has been outspoken in
his criticism of Berlusconi and other politicians in the three years
since he founded his party, known as M5S.
CNN iReporter Elisa Bozzi, an Italian art curator, said she was very disappointed by the outcome of the election.
"Yesterday when I saw
the result I was completely without words," she said. "I think we in
Italy will go again to vote because it's impossible to govern a state in
this situation, (where) we don't have a majority."
She believes many voters
hold Monti responsible for Italy's current debt crisis without
remembering the dire economic situation he inherited when Berlusconi
resigned in 2011. At the same time, Bersani failed to gain people's
confidence, she said.
"Beppe Grillo has many
votes because people are angry and frustrated," Bozzi said. "People in
Italy are completely disappointed by the situation we see day-by-day, by
corruption, scandals."
Such is voters' disillusion that Bozzi believes Grillo could garner enough votes in fresh elections to win outright.
Berlusconi's troubles
Berlusconi, the
septuagenarian playboy billionaire nicknamed "Il Cavaliere," campaigned
as a Milan court weighed his appeal against a tax fraud conviction, for
which he was sentenced to four years in jail last year.
The verdict has still to
be delivered; however, under the Italian legal system, he is entitled
to a further appeal in a higher court.
Because the case dates
to July 2006, the statute of limitations will expire this year, meaning
there is a good chance that none of the defendants will serve any prison
time.
Italian parliamentarians are elected for five-year terms, with the current one due to end in April.
But in December, the PdL
withdrew its support of the reformist government led by Monti, saying
it was pursuing policies that "were too German-centric."
Monti subsequently resigned, and the parliament was dissolved.
Italy's economy has
stagnated for years, and suffered the biggest contraction of any G7
nation in 2012 -- it shrank by 2.2%. Last week, the European Commission
said it would contract by a further 1.0% this year, double the rate it
had previously forecast.
Meanwhile, unemployment will rise to 11.6% in 2013, according to the European Commission, and then 12% next year.
CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau, Hada Messia and
Becky Anderson reported from Rome. Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported
in London. Mark Thompson also contributed to this report from London.
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