Coalition Looks Likely in Italy
February 26, 2013
by VOA News
Italian parliamentary elections have resulted in no clear leading party, signaling gridlock in the days ahead as competing interests struggle to form a coalition government.
The center-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani took the most votes in the lower house - about 125,000, or 29.55 percent - but that was just barely more than the 29.18 percent won by the party led by right-leaning former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
In a surprise, a movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo known as the Five-Star Movement took the third-largest share of votes in the lower house, signaling Italians' frustration with Italian politics and the poor economy.
Results for the upper house, the Senate, are still unclear, although Berlusconi's party is making a strong showing.
A coalition needs 160 seats in the Senate to have a working majority, and Berlusconi may not garner enough support to become prime minister for the fourth time.
The looming paralysis in the European Union's third largest economy has shaken world markets.
The election's indecisive result raises the possibility of new elections in the coming months and will make it hard to pass reforms needed to get the country out of its economic crisis.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
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