Pier Luigi Bersani, the ostensible winner of Italy's general elections last month, said he would try to form a government even though his centre-left coalition doesn't have the full parliamentary support it would need to govern.
The fear of political instability in Italy has returned after the elections, in which no single party or coalition clearly prevailed. Mr Bersani's centre-left coalition narrowly won the most votes in the lower house of Parliament, but there is a three-way tie in the upper house Senate that would make governing virtually impossible.
The stalemate—which occurred in part because of a huge protest vote by Italians who flocked to the anti-establishment party of former comedian Beppe Grillo—has been interpreted by many as a clear sign that European leaders' policy approach to stemming the eurozone's debt crisis is backfiring among the populace. Italy's vote was a "thermometer" of long-simmering tensions, Mr Bersani said in his speech.
Mr Bersani ruled out any alliance with Silvio Berlusconi, long-time leader of the conservative People of Freedom party, saying such an alliance was "not practicable". He reiterated, however, that some form of dialogue with Mr Grillo's Five-Star Movement might be possible.
In particular, Mr Bersani signalled that he was bent on trying to form a government to address a core set of issues, including changing a new property tax; helping Italians adversely affected by new pension rules; making it easier for children of immigrants born in Italy to become citizens; halving the number of parliamentarians and slashing their pay; and pursuing the kind of electoral reform that he said his Democratic Party had long desired.
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