The leader of Italy’s centre-left alliance, Pier Luigi Bersani, has promised to step down once parliament elects a new president.
Mr Bersani announced the news to his Democratic Party (PD) after many centre-left MPs twice refused to back his preferred candidate for president.
The centre-left failed to gain an overall majority at February’s general election despite coming first.
A caretaker technocratic cabinet has been governing in the meantime.
‘Unacceptable’
The political deadlock has compounded concern about the stability of Italy whose economy, the third-biggest in the eurozone, is mired in recession.
President Giorgio Napolitano is set to step down on 15 May at the end of his seven-year term but two parliamentary votes on his successor failed.
On Thursday, former trade unionist and ex-Senate speaker Franco Marini fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed, while on Friday dozens of PD rebels stayed away from the secret ballot, when former Prime Minister Romano Prodi stood as candidate.
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