Silvio Berlusconi has resigned as Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister, bringing to an end a tumultuous, 17-year political career which was marred by sex scandals, corruption allegations and gaffes on the international stage. His departure came hours after the country's lower house of parliament approved, by a margin of 380 votes to 26, an urgently-needed package of economic reforms designed to tackle the country's €1.9 trillion debt, revive its sluggish economy and prevent it from going the way of Greece. After the vote, the 75-year-old billionaire media baron held a final meeting with his cabinet, and was then driven home to his official residence. There he consulted with party advisers, the final step before going to the presidential palace, on Rome's Quirinale Hill, where he gave his resignation to Italy's 86-year-old president, Giorgio Napolitano, a former Communist. A crowd of about 5,000 people erupted into jeers and boos when Mr Berlusconi arrived at the Quirinale Palace in a cavalcade of cars with a police motorcycle escort shortly before 8pm GMT. They shouted "mafioso" and "buffoon" as the prime minister swept into the main entrance of the building. Some protesters shouted, "You should die" and "Silvio, **** off." Given his advanced age and the fact that the coffin is waiting for him already, he has to use his remaining time as "productively" as possible. Imagine if he actually had to hand most of his billions to his heirs....Nah, that can't possibly be. So it's party time again.
Access Investments-Building Awareness - European Union-ROMANIA
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Silvio Berlusconi has resigned as Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister, bringing to an end a tumultuous, 17-year political career which was marred by sex scandals, corruption allegations and gaffes on the international stage. His departure came hours after the country's lower house of parliament approved, by a margin of 380 votes to 26, an urgently-needed package of economic reforms designed to tackle the country's €1.9 trillion debt, revive its sluggish economy and prevent it from going the way of Greece. After the vote, the 75-year-old billionaire media baron held a final meeting with his cabinet, and was then driven home to his official residence. There he consulted with party advisers, the final step before going to the presidential palace, on Rome's Quirinale Hill, where he gave his resignation to Italy's 86-year-old president, Giorgio Napolitano, a former Communist. A crowd of about 5,000 people erupted into jeers and boos when Mr Berlusconi arrived at the Quirinale Palace in a cavalcade of cars with a police motorcycle escort shortly before 8pm GMT. They shouted "mafioso" and "buffoon" as the prime minister swept into the main entrance of the building. Some protesters shouted, "You should die" and "Silvio, **** off." Given his advanced age and the fact that the coffin is waiting for him already, he has to use his remaining time as "productively" as possible. Imagine if he actually had to hand most of his billions to his heirs....Nah, that can't possibly be. So it's party time again.
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3 comments:
But what is the alternative ?
His successor will be a remote-controlled EU puppet.
Mario Monti has been part and parcel of the EU nomenclatura.
A REALLY important point that is being mis reported is the comment that "an urgently-needed package of economic reforms designed to tackle the country's €1.9 trillion debt" .
The economic reforms will no NOTHING to tackle the 1.9 trillion euro debt. The reforms or perhaps more correctly the auserity measures may stop the problem getting worse but it does nothing to deal with the EXISTING debt.
This point has to come out as it is the crux of the matter. The "leadership" is concentrating on these austerity measures and as a direct result is colonosing Europe on this pretext. Yet, no matter how much integration there is in Europe, unless one of the "leaders" is prepared to come clean and say we need to clear the decks and start again this crisis will continue. It is going to be painful, but less painful if e do it now than in 3, 6 or 12 months.
Some believe that Italy is already past the point of no return. When the government's borrowing costs soared past 7pc, the country put itself in the bail-out club as fears about its ability to fund itself coalesced and branded it with a stigma that cannot be erased. The lesson from Greece, Ireland Portugal is that there is unlikely to be any escape.
For some economists, though, it's not all over for Italy. For a start, the country is not insolvent. According to the Italian Treasury, the book value of its assets is €1.8 trillion (£1.53 trillion) – barely less than its €1.9 trillion of debt. Of that, €45bn is tied up in listed companies such as oil group ENI and the utility Enel, €400bn in real estate and €140bn of gold in today's prices. The country has assets to sell. On top of that is the €8.5 trillion of net wealth held by Italy's households, which could also be crow-barred into supporting the economy.
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