Monti and Berlusconi trail in Italian PM poll

Centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani is favourite among Italians to lead the next government, with outgoing technocrat prime minister Mario Monti second most popular and Silvio Berlusconi coming a close third, a poll showed yesterday

Bersani scored 36.2%, Monti 23.3%, and Berlusconi 21.8%, the poll, conducted by the Cise electoral research institute for Il Sole 24 Ore daily, found.

Whoever wins the Feb 24-25 elections will have to tackle a deep recession and rising unemployment in the eurozone’s third largest economy as well as keeping strained public finances under control.