MILAN — Italian President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament Thursday, setting the country on the path to a national election March 4 that could lead to a hung legislature and a period of political turbulence.

The head of state signed a decree ending the legislative sessions in both houses of parliament, according to an emailed statement from Mattarella’s office. At a Cabinet meeting later, the government of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni set the election date.

A coalition led by the Democrats received 29.55 percent of the vote in the last election, held in February 2013, a razor’s edge ahead of the center-right at 29.18 percent. Enrico Letta led the government after the then-party leader, Pierluigi Bersani, was unable to form a government.

Letta was ousted 10 months later in a brash political maneuver by Matteo Renzi, who in turn resigned last December after staking his government on a constitutional referendum that failed. Renzi ceded the government to Gentiloni.

With the upcoming vote also shaping up to be tight, Gentiloni warned against fear-mongering.

“The more we have an election campaign that veers from the easy sale of fear, the better it will be for the country,” he said.

The governing Democratic Party splintered and weakened following Renzi’s resignation a year ago. The Forza Italia party led by former three-time Premier Silvio Berlusconi is locked in a struggle with Matteo Salvini’s anti-migrant, anti-euro Northern League for dominance of the center-right.

While Berlusconi cannot run for office due to a tax-fraud conviction, Salvini has set himself up as his party’s premier candidate, if the Northern League comes out on top.

The vulnerability of the traditional political powers is giving further impetus to the populist 5-Star Movement, which remains Italy’s most popular party but has refused to join a national coalition with any force.

Political analyst Wolfango Piccoli said the likely outcome of the next election is a hung parliament. Polls show the center-right with 37 percent to 39 percent of the vote, the 5-Star Movement with just below 30 percent and the Democratic Party sliding to less than one-quarter, he said.

Long negotiations resulting in “at best a patched-up deal involving several parties” would follow under that scenario, Piccoli said.

Bloomberg News contributed.