Bersani Gets Mandate by Napolitano to Form the new Italian Government

Following two days of consultations, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano handed Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani a mandate to try to form a government, a month after inconclusive elections.
In the next few days Bersani, whose centre-left alliance has a majority in the House but not in the Senate, will need to muster enough support to form a government that can survive the required confidence votes in both houses of Parliament.
In the Feb. 24-25 election, the Democratic Party won a majority in the lower house though he fell short in the Senate where both Beppe Grillo’s Five Star movement and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition won blocking minorities.