Italians are going to the polls in a election which will set Italy's future economic path. It's a vote that has implications for the whole of the euro zone. WSJ's Christopher Emsden reports from Rome. Photo: Getty Images
ROME—The center-left Democratic Party is expected to win in Italian elections, according to instant polls released just after the close of the voting booths on Monday.
Polls commissioned by state broadcaster RAI and Sky television showed the center-left Democratic Party and its far-left ally winning around 35% of the vote, followed by around 29% for the center-right coalition led by the People of Freedom Party of Silvio Berlusconi.
According to the polls—which were conducted by telephone on the two voting days of Sunday and Monday—the anti-establishment party of comedian Beppe Grillo garnered around 19% of the vote and the centrist group of former premier Mario Monti around 9%.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images A woman casts her vote in a polling station in Rome on Monday during Italy's general elections.
The polls don't give a clear idea of whether the Democratic Party—which has long been expected to take the lead—will command the full backing it needs in both houses of parliament to form a stable government needed to steer Italy's ailing economy lest the country become a trouble spot for Europe again.
Shortly after the results of the instant polls, Italy's FTSE-Mib index was up 3.9%, building on gains posted earlier Monday. Banks were the major gainers, with Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo up strongly.
Yields on the Italian 10-year bond fell to 4.18% compared with 4.30% immediately prior to the instant polls.
Votes in the upper house of parliament, or the Senate, are allocated on a regional basis, so more complete results—particularly from key regions such as Lombardy and Sicily-—are needed in order to know whether the center-left coalition will have a two-house majority.
One surprise factor was that the centrist coalition led by Mr. Monti may have won as little as between 7% to 9% of the Senate vote, well below expectations, according to the instant polls.
Government officials began counting actual votes at the closure of polls, and preliminary results are expected to trickle in over the next few hours.
The two-day election is one of the most important in recent Italian history, as it comes after a year of an emergency government that introduced a number of austerity measures aimed at fixing Italy's public finances and set the country on the path of longer-term economic reforms.
The key question for Italians, for the country's European partners and for international investors is whether the new government will continue or abandon them. The departing government of Prime Minister Mario Monti was rushed in during November 2011 as investor demand for the country's bonds was drying up, risking a financial disaster that Europe would have been hard-pressed to contain.
After a year of tax increases, spending cuts and overhauls of Italy's pension and labor systems, market concerns over the country's economy have eased. However, Italy still has a debt pile of 127% of gross domestic product, and Italians—bruised by new property and sales taxes—have clamped down on spending, further hurting growth prospects.
A new government will find itself with the dual challenge of continuing the tight budget policy that Italy has promised its European partners, but also finding a way to ease the social consequences of an 11% unemployment rate—with the jobless rate of 15- to 24-year-olds more than three times that.
Some 72.5% of eligible voters turned out for the two-day election, down from 81.2% in the 2008 general election, according to the Interior Ministry.
Write to Giada Zampano at giada.zampano@dowjones.com and Christopher Emsden at chris.emsden@dowjones.com
