Election cliffhanger grips Italy
Italy's general election is turning into an extremely close race, with early results pointing to a slender lead for PM Silvio Berlusconi.

Mr Berlusconi's centre-right coalition may narrowly retain control of both houses of parliament, according to projections from the Nexus pollsters.

Earlier, exit polls pointed to a narrow lead for his centre-left challenger, Romano Prodi.

Polling stations closed at 1500 (1300 GMT), after two days of voting.

The Nexus projections, carried on the state broadcaster Rai, gave Mr Berlusconi's forces 49.9% in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house), and Mr Prodi's bloc 49.6%.

For the Senate the projections gave Mr Berlusconi's bloc 158 seats and Mr Prodi's 151.

Another six Senate seats are for overseas constituencies, seven for life senators.

Correspondents say exit polls in previous Italian elections have often turned out to be inaccurate.

The interior ministry says early estimates point to a turnout of about 85% - higher in the north than the south, with the lowest turnout being on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.

Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire, has led Italy's longest-serving government since World War II, but the economy has proven sluggish for much of his tenure.

The formation of a new government would have to wait until after the election of a new Italian president next month. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi's seven-year term of office is about to expire.

Acrimonious campaign

The campaign was marked by acrimony, with Mr Berlusconi using vulgar language to describe left-wing voters and Mr Prodi likening him to a drunkard.

Mr Prodi, a former president of the EU Commission, was narrowly ahead in most opinion polls until they were suspended 10 days ago under electoral law.

His mild-mannered - some say lacklustre - style contrasts sharply with Mr Berlusconi's media-savvy flamboyance.

Mr Berlusconi has battled to fend off prosecution for alleged corruption and conflict of interest over his media empire.

He accompanied his 95-year-old mother to the polls. A scrutineer reproved him, half in jest, when he showed his mother where to put a cross against his Forza Italia Party on the ballot paper, the BBC's David Willey reported.

Mr Prodi, who beat Mr Berlusconi in a general election 10 years ago, voted in his home town Bologna.

Both leaders face the tricky task of holding together broad coalitions. That task could be made harder by the new proportional voting system, which is expected to result in a smaller parliamentary majority.

Mr Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, has struggled to translate his personal success as a tycoon into progress for the economy. Growth has slowed to an average of 0.6% a year.

There is a chance, depending on which way the regions fall, that the coalition which controls the Senate may be different from the one which controls the Chamber of Deputies.

That could result in a fresh election, as a "grand coalition" of left and right would be hard to put together after such a bitter campaign, analysts say.

Italian politics have got to be the most fucked-up on the continent. Frankly, not to sound apathetic and all, but really, how much does this really affect anyone? I can't get worked up about this. The UK election, the German election, OK. But Italy?

Berlusconi is a cunt

Oh, you'll get no argument from me on that account. I just can't be arsed to care about Italian politics, that's all. Berlusconi has said so much stupid shit over the years that I simply refuse to take him seriously. For that matter, how seriously can you take the Italian electorate, the same people who seem to elect a new government every time the wind changes direction, the same folk who elected Cicciolina, a Hungarian/Italian hardcore porn star to government?

Unfortuantely our (my) PM is his best mate and stays in his fucking villa all the bastard time so while Prodi comes across as a bit of a cock as well he can't get close to the 100% cockness of Silvio.

And as long as Bush requires Blair to give his speeches for him a man who who owns 90% of Italy's media is getting too large a say in world issues for my liking

Latest news is that Prodi's ahead and set to win. You can rest easy, now. Maybe.

Yeah, Truly the lesser of two weevils.

Nice to see that by usinf FUCKSHITBOLLOCKS this thread has got quite a lot of views, maybe all threads should be named in a similar fashion.

At least there's some good news.

Italian PM Romano Prodi loses a Senate confidence vote that threatens to bring down his government.

Meaning the conservatives (Berlusconi) get back in, don't they?

Bingo.

yay???

I think we'd all be more concerned too if there wasn't a whole ocean separating Italy from us.

If you don't like the direction of Italian politics, perhaps you should just wait 5 weeks until the entire government is ousted. Repeat as necessary.