''Those pesky European voters have
done it again. Last spring the Greek electorate, choked by recession and
austerity, nearly gave the reins of government to a hard-left,
anti-reform coalition. Now it’s Italy’s turn to throw the plans of the
Eurozone high command into disarray. As results of the two-day
parliamentary election began streaming in on Monday, Brussels, Berlin,
and Frankfurt (seat of the European Central Bank)—not to mention the
global markets—looked on in horror. The centre-left coalition led by
Pier-Luigi Bersani and his Democratic Party (made up of reformed
Communists and other modernized leftists) could not put together a
majority in the Senate, even if it went into alliance with the centrists
backing the outgoing prime minister, Mario Monti. The right-wing
coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi had come within a whisker of outright
victory. Most shockingly, M5S (the “Five Star Movement”), an
anti-establishment and anti-euro party founded on the Internet and led
by enraged comedian Beppe Grillo, had received more votes than any other
single party..''
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