Eurozone trembles as Italy heads towards political deadlock

THE final batch of pre-election opinion surveys were published on Friday before the landmark Italian ballot on March 4. With potential political deadlock on the horizon, in a nation where there have been more than 60 national governments in the post-war era, concerns are growing in Europe about the election outcome in the eurozone's third largest economy.

The latest crop of polls, released before the current two-week blackout period began, points to the prospect of no one party or bloc having a working majority in Parliament.

Should this happen, President Sergio Mattarella may seek to put in place a technocrat or coalition government, or potentially call a new election which would see centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni - who is currently the nation's single most popular politician by some margin - stay on in a caretaker role until then.