Markets plunge after protest vote for comic leaves Italy in deadlock

Italy was in political deadlock today after elections failed to deliver a clear winner, sparking fears that the eurozone crisis could reignite.

Stock markets around the globe plunged, as millions of Italians voted for an anti-establishment stand-up comic, Beppe Grillo, turning their back on the euro and anti-austerity measures.

His Five Star Movement won a quarter of the vote, only a few points behind the main centre-Left and centre-Right alliances.

It meant no political group had a clear parliamentary majority. “This is a jump to nowhere that does not bode well either for Italy or Europe,” said Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Garcia-Margallo y Marfil, as the euro skidded to an almost seven-week low against the dollar. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle urged Italy not to abandon its reform programme, and to form a new government “as quickly as possible”.

Results for the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, showed the centre-Left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani scraped into the lead by just 125,000 votes over Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-Right bloc.

Mr Bersani’s group won 29.54 per cent of the vote, compared with 29.18 per cent for Mr Berlusconi’s. But the centre-Left will have a majority because extra seats are awarded to the largest coalition.

The Five Star Movement scored 25.5 per cent — the biggest vote won by a single party. Millions of young people, including many who are jobless, voted for the “non-party” set up by Mr Grillo, who ran a successful campaign focusing on the internet.

Hundreds of thousands turned up at his rallies to hear him attack targets from corrupt politicians and bankers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has vowed not to horsetrade with either main political group, leaving Italy facing fresh elections or a highly unlikely grand coalition of the Right and Left.

Prime Minister Mario Monti’s centrist bloc came fourth, on about 10 per cent. The economist had been credited with tightening Italy’s public finances but his austerity programme was unpopular. The deadlock was reinforced as Mr Bersani failed to win a majority in the Senate. Control of both houses is needed to govern.

Mr Bersani called it “a very delicate situation”. Mr Berlusconi, 76, who faces trial on charges of paying for sex with a minor, said: “Italy cannot be left ungoverned, we have to reflect.” But the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero read: “The winner is: Ingovernability.”