Italy's centre-left was poised to win against Silvio Berlusconi yesterday in a key election for the eurozone, but a new anti-austerity party was also set to make major gains, exit polls showed.
The main Democratic Party led by Pier Luigi Bersani and its smaller leftist allies were ahead with between 34.5 and 37 percent, beating the 29 to 31 percent for a coalition led by the scandal-tainted former prime minister Berlusconi.
A projection by the SkyTG24 news channel said the left would manage to win a majority in both chambers of parliament, following fears that it would fail to snag a majority in the upper house Senate.