Sunday 13 November 2011

Silvio Berlusconi bows out after Italian MPs vote for savage cuts

PM hands in resignation at presidential palace in Rome, bringing to an end his 17-year domination of Italian politics

and
guardian.co.uk,

Silvio Berlusconiwas forced to hide from a jeering crowd in Rome after handing in his resignation at a late-night meeting with President Giorgio Napolitano. His departure followed a historic vote in parliament that paved the way for a new government tasked with shoring up the ailing economy.




Silvio Berlusconi leaves Palazzo Grazioli
Berlusconi was forced to leave the presidential residence through a side entrance, to chants of "buffoon, buffoon" from thousands of demonstrators outside.

 The news agency Ansa reported that he told aides: "This is something that deeply saddens me." The protesters, including a choir singing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah, rejoiced at his departure.
The 75-year-old billionaire brought down the curtain on a government that has become plagued by scandals and seemed increasingly helpless in the face of the economic storm that has taken his country and the euro to the brink of catastrophe. The dramatic end of his 17-year domination of Italian politics came as the lower house of parliament approved a package of savage cuts and stimulus measures demanded by the European Union to trim Italy's massive €1.9 trillion debt.

After losing his majority in the house, a weakened Berlusconi had pledged to resign as soon as he had pushed the reform package through parliament. The reforms were passed by 380 votes to 26. Opposition parties did not participate. The package was passed as José Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission, issued a sharp rebuke to Eurosceptics in the UK who want to use the crisis to disengage from the European Union. Writing in the Observer, he said all members of the EU need to unite and "advance together".

Despite support eroding within his own ranks, Berlusconi was greeted by cheers of "Silvio, Silvio", and given a standing ovation by his party as he took his seat in the chamber. Fabrizio Cicchitto, a member of his Freedom People party, told MPs: "We express all our solidarity to him for the attacks he has suffered." Berlusconi stood to give a slight bow to the chamber.

Italy's longest serving postwar prime minister raised a toast with ministers at a final cabinet meeting after the vote, only for his car to be chased by protesters shouting "Go, go, thief!" as he left for a second meeting with party officials at his Rome residence. Outside, pro-Berlusconi demonstrators unfurled banners alongside protesters who hurled vulgar insults as they arrived. After the vote was passed, 200 people marched down Rome's Via del Corso yelling "resign, resign!"

Napolitano is expected to nominate the former EU commissioner Mario Monti to head a "technocratic" government. Berlusconi will hand his successor the unenviable task of imposing measures such as a rise in VAT and the pension age, higher fuel prices and the sale of state assets on a nation that only half-believes it needs them.

Ministers in the Freedom People party, including former neofascists, were earlier demanding elections over a potential Monti administration. But following a Berlusconi-chaired meeting, the party released a statement saying it would back Monti if he limited his task in government to carrying through the new reform package.

Berlusconi appeared to throw his lot in with Monti by inviting the respected economist to lunch at his residencebefore the vote in parliament. Referring to Napolitano's likely anointing of Monti, Berlusconi's justice minister, Nitto Palma, said: "We are in his hands."
 The need to win over Berlusconi's party, the biggest in the Italian parliament, had been exacerbated by the continuing refusal of the Northern League, Berlusconi's coalition partner, to back Monti. The opposition Italy of Values party, meanwhile reversed its earlier resistance to a Monti government.

With left and right bitterly divided following the Berlusconi years, it appeared the only solution acceptable to a majority in parliament would be a government of unaligned technocrats. The sole politician being touted, as the likely foreign minister, was socialist Giuliano Amato, the veteran former prime minister. Several professors from Milan's Bocconi University, where Monti is president, are expected to be in the new cabinet.
It looked as if the head of state would try to confirm Monti as prime minister by the time the markets open in Europe.

As some of Berlusconi's followers protested at the speed with which the new government was being imposed, Napolitano pleaded for a sense of responsibility. In Milan, journalist Giuliano Ferrara held a meeting in support of elections and said bond yields were being used "like armoured cars" to suppress democracy. Roberto Maroni, the League interior minister, claimed Italy was under unfair pressure from the EU to abandon its right to hold elections. "I don't think there is a precedent for someone going to a sovereign state and telling people what they should do," he said.

Monti's likely decision to leave politicians out of a new cabinet could give it the neutrality it needs to keep Italy's political factions on side. The markets will reopen after a week that saw the interest rate on Italy's crushing debt – 120 % of GDP – soar above 7%. The new government will have a limited time to implement spending cuts and stimulus measures, which include a sell-off of state property and incentives for firms to hire women and the young.

But economist Nouriel Roubini warned that the measures were not enough. "In the next 12 months there is a high likelihood that Plan A for Italy is not going to work," he said.

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