The country has never faced a situation in which the two houses, with their equal legislative powers, were controlled by opposing coaltions. Perhaps it was this that shifted the balance, bestirring Mr Berlusconi’s more apathetic supporters and provoking a historically high turnout of 84 per cent, four points more than in 2001.By 1am, the polling organisation Nexus predicted the centre-left would be one seat ahead in the Chamber of Deputies, which due to the rules of the new system would give them a majority of 50 seats. As Mr Berlusconi said, the only figures in it are the page numbers.In the last week of the campaigning, Mr Berlusconi threw himself back into the fray with superhuman energy, rampaging from television studio to press conference, stabbing his finger at the camera, throwing tantrums at women interviewers, thumping his fists on the table, doing Mein Fuhrer impressions. Its manifesto, the size of a phone directory, is strong on harmless generalities but weak on concrete proposals.

Yet he is opposed by a centre-left coalition that has had its work cut out presenting itself as a credible political force.Romano Prodio’s coalition encompasses hardline and reformed Communists, Christian Democrats and anti-clerical liberals. He has left it poorer, angrier and deeper in debt than it was five years ago, with its major institutions either reformed ineptly or not at all, with a critically wounded legal system and the image of a country that is not fully serious and is not to be trusted. Nothing he did in the past two years seemed to change that.Yet last night he was still in with a chance. Italy, mired in debt and with zero growth, needed electoral paralysis like a hole in the head But that is what it appears to have got Mr Berlusconi has not governed Italy well. Mr Berlusconi got the message that voters were tiring of him two years ago, when his party, Forza Italia, slumped from 29 to 21 per cent in polls for the European Parliament.

The Italian electorate, commentators said, makes up its mind long in advance. Yet as the evening advanced, those wins were not forthcoming.It was a stunning upset, one that even Berlusconi had not predicted. A Senate victory was therefore important if the centre-left was to have a clear mandate, and that depended on their getting wins in a handful of swing regions, including Lazio (which includes Rome), Piedmont and Sicily. A dead heat and paralysis, or a centre-right victory in the Senate were real possibilities.The Chamber of Deputies has nearly twice the number of seats (630) as the Senate, but it is not, as with the Commons in Britain, the ruling house Both enjoy equal powers.