ROME, March 5 (Reuters) – The political novices of Italy’s
5-Star Movement had an early taste on Tuesday of the pressure
from a hungry media pack when one official created a storm by
defending fascism and another had to beg journalists not to ask
for interviews.

Roberta Lombardi, the newly appointed 5-Star leader in the
lower house of parliament, was singled out on Tuesday for a blog
post she wrote in January that praised some aspects of the
fascist movement of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.

ROME/BERLIN, March 1 (Reuters) – President Giorgio
Napolitano ruled out an early return to the polls on Friday as
Italy’s parties wrangled over how to form a government after
this week’s deadlocked election.

Speaking during a state visit to Berlin, Napolitano said
Italy needed a stable government and could not immediately hold
a new election.

ROME/BERLIN (Reuters) – President Giorgio Napolitano ruled out an early return to the polls on Friday as Italy’s parties wrangled over how to form a government after this week’s deadlocked election.

Speaking during a state visit to Berlin, Napolitano said Italy needed a stable government and could not immediately hold a new election.

ROME (Reuters) – The head of Italy’s main business association voiced optimism on Wednesday that political parties could resolve a post-election stalemate but said they must move quickly or financial markets would turn hostile.

Giorgio Squinzi, president of Confindustria, said the situation was “extremely serious” but he was confident the main parties had enough in common to prevent the crisis slipping out of control.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s stunned political parties searched for a way forward on Tuesday after an inconclusive election gave none of them a parliamentary majority and threatened prolonged instability and a renewal of the European financial crisis.

The results, notably the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the upper chamber, the Senate.

ROME, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Italy faced political deadlock on
Tuesday after a stunning election that saw the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo become
the strongest party in the country but left no group with a
clear majority in parliament.

The centre-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani won the
lower house by around 125,000 votes and claimed the most seats
in the Senate but was short of the majority in the upper house
that it would need to govern.

ROME (Reuters) – A huge protest vote by Italians enraged by economic hardship and political corruption left the euro zone’s third-largest economy facing a dangerous vacuum on Monday after an election in which no group won enough votes to form a government.

The result, in which anti-euro parties took more than 50 percent of the vote and a novice populist movement scored a stunning success, rocked global markets with fears of a new euro zone crisis.

ROME (Reuters) – A huge protest vote by Italians enraged by economic hardship and political corruption pushed the country towards deadlock after an election on Monday, with voting projections showing no coalition strong enough to form a government.

With more than two thirds of the vote counted, the projections suggested the centre left could have a slim lead in the race for the lower house of parliament.

ROME, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Projections from an early vote
count in Italy’s election on Monday showed Silvio Berlusconi’s
centre right slightly ahead in the Senate, a result that could
cause deep government instability if confirmed.

The projections on RAI, Sky, Mediaset and LA 7 television
stations were the reverse of earlier predictions from telephone
polls that showed the centre left taking a strong lead in both
houses of parliament.

ROME (Reuters) – The centre left is strongly leading in Italy’s election, raising the chances of a stable pro-reform government in the euro zone’s third largest economy, according to two telephone polls published after voting ended.

The polls on Sky and Rai television after voting ended at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT/9 a.m. ET) showed the centre left of Pier Luigi Bersani 5-6 points ahead of the centre right of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, with the anti-establishment movement of Genoese comedian Beppe Grillo taking third place.