{{Italians have begun voting in general elections seen as crucial for the country’s effort to tackle its economic problems, as well as for the eurozone.}}<\/p>\n
Estimates published before a ban on polls two weeks ago gave a lead to Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left alliance.<\/p>\n
It was thought to be a few points ahead of the centre-right bloc led by ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Mr Berlusconi gave a TV interview – in what his opponents said was a breach of the campaigning ban.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Berlusconi’s office later said the interview had been granted only with the explicit agreement that it would be broadcast after polls close on Monday.<\/p>\n
A centrist coalition led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti is also running in the election, held on Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n
And opinion polls suggested there would be a strong turnout for popular comedian Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment movement.<\/p>\n
The election was called two months ahead of schedule, after Mr Berlusconi’s party withdrew its support for Mr Monti’s technocratic government.<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Italians have begun voting in general elections seen as crucial for the country’s effort to tackle its economic problems, as well as for the eurozone.}} Estimates published before a ban on polls two weeks ago gave a lead to Pier Luigi Bersani’s centre-left alliance. It was thought to be a few points ahead of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-6116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6116"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=6116"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=6116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}