Italian President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament on Thursday, paving the way for general elections in early 2018 which might plunge one of Europe's biggest economies into fresh political instability.
Mattarella "has signed the decree of dissolution for the Senate of the Republic and for the Chamber of Deputies, which was counter-signed by the Prime Minister," the presidency said in a statement.
The decision came after Mattarella held individual talks with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and the speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament. The government had a cabinet meeting and announced afterwards that it has set March 4 as the date for the next parliamentary election.
"The base-case for the election outcome is a hung parliament. This means that Italy will likely enter a difficult phase post-vote as forming a governing majority will be complicated, if not impossible," said Wolfango Piccoli, a political analyst from Teneo Intelligence.
The vote is seen as a three-way race between a conservative bloc led by former premier Silvio Berlusconi, the anti-establishment and eurosceptic Five Star Movement (M5S) and Gentiloni's centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
Berlusconi's alliance is expected to win the most votes but not a majority, while the M5S could emerge as the single biggest party, but with no coalition partners. The PD, led by the increasingly unpopular ex-premier Matteo Renzi, is heading for a rout.
However, Gentiloni said political instability risks should not be overstated.
In a press conference in Rome, he recalled that Italy has a history of short-lived and unstable governments, and said, "We are pretty vaccinated [...] and these frequent changes did not stop the country from growing and developing."
Other countries were in the same boat, the Italian premier added.
"I hear people talking about an Italianization of [European] politics," he said. "If I think about the bigger European economies, all have, except [France], problems of relative political instability: look at Britain, Spain, even Germany."
Gentiloni stressed that his government would remain in place until a deal on a successor administration is found. He dodged questions on the possibility that he may keep his job after the elections as leader of a grand coalition.
Gentiloni's government was hastily appointed 12 months ago after Renzi was badly defeated in a referendum on constitutional reforms he had sponsored, and resigned from the premiership. Since then, Renzi's popularity has plunged and the PD has splintered.
Italy is the eurozone's third-largest economy. It emerged from a record recession in 2014, but remains hobbled by low growth, unemployment and high public debt, and is the European Union country that is most exposed to migrant inflows from North Africa.