In the lower chamber, Mr Bersani scraped a razor-thin victory, winning just 29.55 percent to 29.18 percent for Mr Berlusconi, with 99.9 percent of the ballots counted. The victor's bonus will give the left a handy majority in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. But in the 305-seat Senate, preliminary results from the interior ministry showed Mr Berlusconi's coalition could win 110 seats to the left's 97 seats, with neither group winning a majority. A majority in both chambers of parliament is required to form a government, leaving Italy in a state of limbo with a hung parliament that is unprecedented in its post-war history. "It is clear to everyone that this is a very delicate situation for the country," Mr Bersani said late Monday. "This is a shock vote that gives us a blocked parliament," ran a headline on the website of Italy's top-selling daily, Corriere della Sera. Massimo Razzi, columnist for La Repubblica daily, said the elections had made Italy "ungovernable." Mr Grillo's Five Star Movement was set to hold hold the balance of power. While securing more votes, both the Left and the Right are part of coalitions made up of several parties. Mr Grillo's Five Star Movement has few concrete policies, aside from advocating a referendum on Italy's membership of the eurozone. But it tapped into a wave of voter disgust towards the established parties, austerity policies and a youth unemployment rate of 36 per cent. Many of his candidates have almost no political experience. They are students, web designers, environmentalists and housewives, some of them in their twenties. But he said they were needed to shake up Italy's calcified political system, and promised to "open up parliament like a tin of tuna." "Our candidates are young... that is their strength - they don't know how to fiddle the books," he said. As the results came in, he chided the Italians who voted for Mr Berlusconi, saying that returning the media tycoon to power amounted to "a crime against the galaxy." Mr Berlusconi's apparent success would confirm his reputation as a political phoenix able to rise from the ashes of the sex scandals, legal imbroglios and politically incorrect jokes that have made him an international laughing stock. "It's an extraordinary triumph," said Angelino Alfano, the secretary of Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party. During the election campaign, Mr Berlusconi appeared regularly on television, making wisecracks and attacking his adversaries as communists. Many, like Mr Grillo, were dismayed by his return from the political grave. But an alliance between him and Mr Bersani is all but unworkable, given the personal rancour and sharp policy differences between the two.