Italy:An early general election in Italy, at the end of March or the beginning of April, looks more and more likely following the failure of senate speaker Franco Marini to oversee the formation of an interim government.
Mr Marini, appointed by President Giorgio Napolitano in the wake of the collapse two weeks ago of the centre-left government led by Romano Prodi, last night informed the president that he had been unable to find a consensus for a short-term government. Mr Marini had been asked to explore the possibility of the formation of a government that would have had a mandate to enact electoral reform prior to the holding of an immediate general election.
Many observers, across the political divide, believe that the current electoral legislation, introduced in 2005 by the Silvio Berlusconi, centre-right government, is deeply flawed and at least partly responsible for the instability that marked Mr Prodi's 20 months in office.
The ball is now firmly in the court of President Napolitano who seems to be left with little room for manoeuvre and it may well be that he will dissolve parliament this morning.
The failure of Mr Marini's exploratory mission came as no surprise, given the widely different positions reiterated yesterday by the leaders of the two biggest parties, Mr Berlusconi of centre-right Forza Italia and Walter Veltroni of the centre-left Democratic Party.
Whilst Mr Veltroni had expressed a willingness to take part in a short-term, electoral reform government, Mr Berlusconi repeated his insistence that the only solution to Italy's political crisis is an early election.