While Mr Bersani's narrow victory in the election guaranteed him an automatic majority in the lower house, he cannot govern without control of the Senate too.

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The benefits are many: lower costs, easy implementation, automatic upgrades.

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She argued that they should allow "automatic stabilisers" -- higher welfare spending and lower tax revenues -- to kick in if the economy deteriorated.

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He said that access to the government deal was not "automatic" and that any bank seeking a new package risked getting a far lower share price than when the offer was first made.

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