ROME (Reuters) - Italy s ruling Democratic Party (PD) has lost support following its flop in a regional election in Sicily, while Silvio Berlusconi s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) has gained ground, according to a poll released on Thursday. National elections must be held by next May, with all recent opinion polls suggesting that it will end in a hung parliament. IXE pollsters said backing for the center-left PD, which is led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, dropped to 23.8 percent, down 3.6 percentage points from its last survey in mid-October. The PD slump enabled the maverick 5-Star Movement to establish itself firmly as Italy s most popular party, climbing to 27.9 percent from a previous 27.2 percent. Forza Italia moved into third spot, rising to 15.5 percent from 13.6 percent and jumping ahead of its long-time ally, the far-right Northern League, which dropped 1.6 percentage points to 13.5 percent. Under the terms of an electoral law approved last month, which allows the creation of multi-party coalitions ahead of the national elections, the center-right bloc is expected to emerge from the ballot box as the biggest single force. The bloc won a regional vote in Sicily on Nov. 5, with the victory seen as a personal triumph for Berlusconi, who used the ballot to revive his political career after years of graft trials, sex scandals and ill-health. The 5-Star came second on the Mediterranean island, with the PD limping in a distant third. Renzi s party has been beset by feuding and looks unlikely to reach any pre-election pact with myriad leftist groups, which have accused him of pushing the PD too far to the left. The IXE poll suggested the center-right would take a combined 33.8 percent of the vote. The bloc leaders have said whichever party wins the most votes will decide who should be its prime ministerial candidate. 
Italy's PD drops fast in polls after Sicily flop