Five Star, North League dominate Italy's legislative elections

ROME, March 5 (KUNA) -- The political map of Italy has changed with the outcome of legislative elections in which the Five Star Movement (M5S) leading final results along with the right North League party, but Silvio Berlusconi's center-right lost grounds.
The Interior Ministry said turnout was 73 percent, and that M5S, led by Luigi Di Maio, garnered 32.6 percent of votes for the 630-seat House of Representatives and 32.2 percent for the 315-seat Senate.
The Democratic Party, which spearheaded the government over the past five years, gained only 18.7 percent of votes of the lower house and 19.1 percent of the Senate.
Matteo Salvini's North League was leading the right parties, winning 17.4 percent of votes for the lower house and 17.7 percent of the Senate.
On the other hand, Berlusconi's Forza Italia was behind with 14 percent of votes for the House of Representatives and 14.4 percent of the Senate.
Pundits described the results as "an earthquake that changed the Italian political map, because the center-left democratic party and center-right Forza Italia collapsed." Di Maio, who would be the next Prime Minister, said the results represented an end to the Second Republic and the birth of the Third Republic.
Commenting on the results, Di Maio said "we are open to all political forces ... starting with the election of the presidents of the house of representative and senate ... and over the agenda. (end) mn.bs