Tag: Mario Monti

• Friday, April 26th 2013 - 07:29 UTC

  Berlusconi emerges as the great saviour of the current Italian political stalemate

  

  Silvio Berlusconi, the three-time prime minister and two-time convicted lawbreaker seems to be the great victor in Italy by out-manoeuvring rivals during an eight-week political stalemate and becoming the key figure in talks for a new coalition government.

• Monday, April 1st 2013 - 09:27 UTC

  Italian president confirms PM Monti until a new government can be formed

  

  Italian President Giorgio Napolitano ruled out standing down early to make way for new parliamentary elections, following the failure of attempts to form a government this week. He stressed that Prime Minister Mario Monti retained full authority at the head of a caretaker administration until a new government can be formed

• Thursday, March 28th 2013 - 09:40 UTC

  “Only a mentally ill would want to govern Italy now” says frustrated Bersani

  

  The head of Italy's centre-left bloc has hit an impasse in his efforts to form a government and said only a mentally ill person would want to govern Italy now. Pier Luigi Bersani was rebuffed by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement on Wednesday.

• Sunday, March 10th 2013 - 11:29 UTC

  Fitch downgrades Italy’s debt rating; economy forecasted to contract 1.8% this year

  

  Ratings agency Fitch added to Italy's mounting problems this week by cutting its credit rating due to the political uncertainty after last week's election, deep recession and rising debt. Fitch lowered Italy's sovereign rating by one notch to BBB plus, with a negative outlook, raising the risk that its next ratings change will be a further downgrade.

• Friday, February 22nd 2013 - 01:53 UTC

  Berlusconi rattles election campaign claiming Monti and Bersani have “Merkel’s blessing”

  

  Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti rowed back from comments suggesting that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had expressed opposition to his political rivals on the centre-left days before an election next week.

• Monday, February 4th 2013 - 04:46 UTC

  Berlusconi promises to end with the “technical” and “left wing” taxmen

  

  Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his “last great electoral and political battle” with a sweeping promise to cut taxes and the cost of government if his centre-right wins elections this month.

• Tuesday, December 11th 2012 - 21:27 UTC

  Berlusconi begins campaign and challenges: “who cares about the spread?”

  

  Italy's Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday set the tone for his election campaign saying nobody should care about bond spreads, and accused Mario Monti of being too “German-centric”.

• Saturday, November 17th 2012 - 23:09 UTC

  IMF questions plan to restructure Greek debt: “pls reality, not wishful thinking”

  

  An agreement among Greece's international creditors on reducing its large debt pile should be “rooted in reality and not in wishful thinking,” the head of the International Monetary Fund said ahead of a tense meeting with European leaders.

• Wednesday, July 25th 2012 - 07:04 UTC

  Germany and France express support for Spain but markets demand more than words

  

  German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his counterpart from Madrid said Spain’s borrowing costs don’t reflect the strength of its economy as they pledged to work toward deeper integration to fight the debt crisis.

• Friday, July 13th 2012 - 23:41 UTC

  Former PM Berlusconi will return as candidate in next year’s general election

  

  Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will return to frontline politics as the centre-right candidate in next year's general election, a senior official in his PDL party was quoted this week.