Election pushes Italy towards two-party system

By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's next parliament will have far fewer parties than the previous assembly, pushing the country closer to the two-party system that many commentators say is the only way to end years of political instability.

Italy's last parliament had more than 20 parties. The new assembly taking shape after this week's election will count no more than six.

Besides handing a comfortable victory to media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, Italians sent a clear message by rewarding big political forces at the expense of the smaller parties that so often have held coalition governments to ransom.

"This is an electoral tsunami that redraws Italy's political landscape," wrote left-leaning La Repubblica daily on Tuesday.

Despite electoral rules which in past elections had favored smaller groups, seven out of 10 voters this time chose either Berlusconi's People of Freedom or the centre left's Democratic Party.

"This simplification brings us closer to other European countries we often envied and could result in quicker decision-making," said La Stampa daily in an editorial.

According to preliminary results for the lower house, Berlusconi's People of Freedom, which merged his Forza Italia movement with the post-fascist National Alliance, won 37 percent of the vote -- making it Italy's biggest single political group.

At the other end of the political spectrum, the Democratic party -- which was founded only last October by bringing together the centre left's two biggest forces and chose to ditch its far-left allies in the election -- won 33 percent.