Rocky elections in Italy revive doubts in the euro zone

European politics bottomed out during the height of the financial crisis several months ago. Now, the heinous results of elections in Italy remind us of the dangers of a warring congress and the breakdown of traditional parties -- not to mention that new players on the scene are ready to take advantage of the political turmoil.

Spanish political parties should pay close attention to what is happening in Italy and get their hands dirty making necessary reforms so that a similar situation does not erupt in Spain. Both the EU and the financial markets fear what consequences of Italy's utter disregard of austerity. The markets rose while the possibility of a coalition government led by leftist Pier Luigi Bersani and Mario Monti. But they started to drop again when the feeling arose that the results of the election were not so clear. The worst case scenario is now in sight: parliament cannot be governed. Bersani won a close victory that just gets him a majority in Congress, but not in the Senate. He also won?t get Monti's backing, which is a big hit, whereas Berlusconi did get it.

Even more worrisome is the vertiginous rise of Bepe Grillo, who managed to scrape together 25% of the votes. Italy's support for this candidate shows that the population is disoriented by a lack of solid leadership from its traditional politicians. It is difficult to forecast a way for the nation to exit the current crisis. Could Italy face new elections? It is clear that doubts are once again surrounding the EU's third largest economy, which is being slowed down by recovery efforts and threats to the euro's stability.