Italy’s new parliament met yesterday for the first time since last month’s inconclusive election with no sign of a deal to end the stalemate and yield a government able to address the deep problems in the euro zone’s third-largest economy.
The parties have so far failed to find a way out of the impasse created by the election, which left the centre-left with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the Senate and form a government.
Without that, an early return to the polls is the likely alternative, bringing more uncertainty and the threat of a renewed bout of the financial market turmoil that helped topple Silvio Berlusconi’s government in 2011.
Attempts by centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to reach an accord with Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement have been rebuffed and Bersani has ruled out any deal with ex-premier Berlusconi, whose centre-right bloc is the second-biggest force in Parliament.
“We are ready for anything,” Roberta Lombardi, the 5-Star Movement’s parliamentary leader in the lower house, told reporters when asked if she was prepared to go back to the ballot box.
Michela Biancafiore, a deputy from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party considered close to the former premier, said she expected Bersani’s Democratic Party would fail to reach a deal with Grillo and end up voting for one of its own members. “That will mean that the PD will remain without a majority in the Senate and we’ll be voting again in June,” she told reporters.
The election of the speakers will prepare the way for President Giorgio Napolitano to begin formal consultations with party leaders next week to see if there is any prospect of an agreement over a government.
Business leaders, bankers, foreign heads of government and international officials have all voiced hope that Italy can form a government capable of reforms needed to lift its stagnant economy.
The fiery Grillo has promised not to support any government not led by his own movement in a confidence vote. He has repeatedly rejected any backroom deal with the parties he blames for dragging Italy into crisis.
Underlining the instability, an opinion poll yesterday showed the 5-Star Movement had maintained its support in the three weeks since the election, suggesting that any return to the polls could well produce a similar result.
If none of the parties can conclude an agreement, Napolitano could ask an outsider to try to form a technocrat government, such as the one led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti although there is no guarantee the parties would agree.
Berlusconi, confined to hospital for the past week with an eye complaint, was not in parliament but the other party leaders were present apart from Grillo, who did not stand for election and who leads his movement from outside parliament. As well as his health problems, Berlusconi faces two trials this month that have occupied much of his attention.