Berlusconi, who announced this month he will again lead his People of Freedom
party (PDL) in a national election expected in February, said on a talk-show on
state broadcaster RAI that the ECB should become a lender of last resort for the
currency bloc.
"If Germany doesn't accept that the ECB must be a real central bank, if
interest rates don't come down, we will be forced to leave the euro and return
to our own currency in order to be competitive," Berlusconi said in comments
reported by Italian news agencies Ansa and Agi.
The 76-year-old media tycoon has made similar remarks in the past about the
possibility of Italy, or even Germany, leaving the euro, but has often at least
partially rectified them later, Reuters reported.
Berlusconi is already campaigning hard for the election with a spate of
television interviews in an attempt to close the wide gap with the centre-left
Democratic Party which is polling at above 30pc, some 14 points above the PDL.
Berlusconi was forced to resign as prime minister in November last year as
Italian bond yields surged at the height of the euro zone debt crisis.
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Critics have struck out at French finance minister Pierre Moscovici's draft banking reform bill (see 12.24), saying it will not get tough with the financial sector as President Hollande pledged it would. Speaking to Reuters reporters, Alex Koagne, an analyst from French investment bank Natixis, said:
It's ultimately a minimal reform, without much impact on banking activities and without major upheaval in the way they're operated.
His colleague Jerome Cazes added:
This is worse than a backtrack. It is the minimum you can put in a law without blowing a raspberry to the public.
The European Central Bank has given Greece a vote of confidence – announcing that it will accept Greek debt as collateral again.
The ECB said its move was in recognition of Greece's economic reforms, its budget plans, and the (faltering?) steps it has taken towards privatising its assets.
That means commercial banks can use Greek bonds as security when they borrow from the ECB.
Traders have rushed to buy Greek bonds, pushing down the yield on its 10-year debt to just 12.1%, from 12.8% overnight
Yes and there was yet another article about ‘bad Greece’ on the BBC today (Greece neglect of migrants shameful-it is always about ‘Greece’, never the Greek government, but Greece in general, all of us!) Indeed, the conditions in immigrant detention camps in Greece are appalling. But so appalling are the conditions in Greek prisons, Greek hospitals, the homeless and hungry (Greek and immigrants alike). The Greek government’s (not Greece’s, but the Greek government’s) treatment of immigrants is shameful, just as is the Greek government’s treatment of its own nationals. Illegal immigration into Greece is not just a Greek problem, but a European one. I volunteer for the homeless in Athens and have been involved in the antiracism campaign too. I have spoken with many immigrants, none of them want to stay here, (where hundreds of thousands of Greeks and immigrants alike are already in the hunger zone), but they all complain that it is impossible to get allowed into N. European countries, which are their aim and dream. Yes Greece must accept her responsibilities, but why don’t other European countries accept their responsibilities too? It does not justify the Greek government's abuse of immigrants, but why don’t N. Europeans and the UK accept these hundreds of thousands immigrants onto their lands, if they really wish to help them… Why do they still deport them back to Greece, as the first country of entry, under the EU Dublin II convention? Without denying the extent of the maltreatment, but it is all too easy blaming it all on ‘bad Greece’ in general (even though, in the last three years, it is not exactly Greeks who run Greece. The troika has dictated every single detail of public and economic life, the immigrant detention camps are funded by the EU and the border police Frontex is also recruited and funded by the EU -so, why don’t they do something to really help immigrants rather than massive detention camps and border police?). Where was the caring foreign media a few days ago, when 20 people drowned in the cold Aegean while trying to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece? Loads die in a similar way every day, where is the international community to help them?? I found NOTHING mentioned in foreign press about the incident, I searched a lot. If they truly care about immigrants, they should see the problem in its entirety. If there is anyone today doing something about destitute and desperate immigrants in Greece, this is the Greeks themselves, those in the antiracism-antifascism front, who get beaten up by neonazis for speaking up and marching in antiracist demonstrations, those in voluntary organizations, those in solidarity initiatives, those in teaching and training, those in charities and homeless shelters and free meal hand-outs. But these ones never get covered by European media, who all go on and on about ‘bad Greece’
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