Post date: Feb 25, 2013 10:34:11 PM
As Italians await election results with projections showing no party with Senate majority as huge protest vote pushes Italy towards deadlock.
ROME, ITALY (FEBRUARY 25, 2013)(REUTERS) - Few people were out celebrating on Monday night (February 25) as Italians waited for the result of parliamentary elections that were looking very close to call.
Polls pointed to the centre-left of Pier Luigi Bersani winning the lower house, but projections from four different television stations showed Silvio Berlusconi's centre right (PDL) slightly ahead in the Senate, which has equal lawmaking power.Fabrizio Cicchitto, PDL president at the Chamber speaking at the headquarters said:
"We shall see what the result is. There are two bits of political data that are emerging, the success of the PDL and the centre-right that nobody forsaw, they said we were dead already. And what is clear is the failure of Monti who lost a great occasion, he and Casini and their alliance of centre-right and moderate parties, they formed only small centre group that was cannibalised. For the rest we have to wait to see the definite result."
RAI state television showed the centre-left well short of a majority in the Senate even in coalition with Monti, who was seen slumping to only 19 out of 315 elected Senators against a massive 65 for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo.
Senate votes are counted before the lower house.
The latest projections ran counter to earlier telephone polls that showed the centre left taking a strong lead in the Senate as well as the lower house.
Berlusconi's declared aim is to win enough power in the Senate to paralyse a centre-left administration.
"It is clear in these elections those who thought the PDL were finished, the centre-right had vanished and Berlusconi was finished will have had to think again. It has been confirmed that he is a great leader, not only from a political point of view but he is also an extraordinary character who has always believed in success," Angelo Alfano, Secretary of Berlusconi's PDL said.
A surge in protest votes for Grillo's 5-Star Movement had raised uncertainty about the chances of a stable government that could fend off the danger of a renewed euro zone crisis.
Grillo's movement rode a huge wave of voter anger about both the pain of Monti's austerity programme and a string of political and corporate scandals. It had particular appeal for a frustrated younger generation shut out of full-time jobs.
"The results from today show clearly that Italy has decided to change and the Italians prefer a leap in the dark, as Grillo says, rather than assisted suicide. People are tired and the politics of the last ten years have brought them to their knees and the economic crisis has been the result of the politics of the last ten years. This movement captures the feeling of this moment," Marta Grande, a member of the 5-Star Movement told Reuters TV.