Protest voting in Italy has created a new political landscape and pushed the country towards deadlock.
With more than 90 percent of the votes counted in the country’s parliamentary elections (at 22:00 CET on February 25), the centre-left led by Pier Luigi Bersani has a slim lead over Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition in the lower house of parliament. But neither faction seems likely to be able to form a majority in the Senate.
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Global Macro Monitor 
It seems to me that stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic over-reacted to the prospect of gridlock in Italy. I make the case in http://thewordenreport.blogspot.com/2013/02/italian-election-roils-markets-over.html. I argue that an antiquated view of Europe is a factor in the over-reaction. In short, Italian politics don’t matter as much as they did “back in the day.”
Good points. Thanks.