Berlusconi agrees to quit but insists on new Italy elections
Source: Agencies |
November 10, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PRIME Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday confirmed he would resign after implementing urgent economic reforms demanded by the European Union, and said Italy must then hold general elections, in which he would not stand.
"We have to give Europe and the world an urgent, strong signal that we are taking things seriously," he told a morning TV show by phone.
After failing to secure a majority in a vote in the lower house on Tuesday night, Berlusconi said he would quit as soon as parliament passed budget reforms to help Italy stave off a debt crisis that is threatening the entire euro zone.
Berlusconi, who has been under pressure to resign for weeks as markets pummelled Italy, also said his decision to resign was "a gesture of responsibility" to the country.
But he said he was opposed to any form of transitional or national unity government - which the opposition and many on the markets favor - and that early elections was the only alternative.
Markets showed little or no relief that a man they saw as an obstacle to economic reform planned to leave office. The yield on Italy's 10-year benchmark bonds rose sharply to near 7.00 percent, a level widely seen as unsustainable at which Portugal, Greece and Ireland were forced to seek a bailout.
In a separate interview with La Stampa newspaper, Berlusconi said he saw an election being held at the start of February and that PDL party secretary and former justice minister Angelino Alfano would be the center-right's candidate for prime minister. "I will resign as soon as the (budget) law is passed, and, since I believe there is no other majority possible, I see elections being held at the beginning of February and I will not be a candidate in them."
Berlusconi's delayed resignation is highly unusual in Italy and several left-wing newspapers suggested he might be playing for time and would not eventually step down. But he gave a string of interviews yesterday underlining that he would resign.
Commentators said the fact that President Giorgio Napolitano had announced the resignation plan in an official statement would make if extremely difficult for Berlusconi to renege. They suggested that his priority now was to keep his center-right coalition in power.
Votes on the economic reforms in both houses of parliament are likely this month. Opposition leaders may try to bring them forward in order to end as soon as possible the flamboyant billionaire media tycoon's 17-year dominance of Italian politics.
Napolitano said he would start consultations with all political parties after the new budget measures were approved. When a government is defeated or resigns, it is the president's duty to appoint a new leader to try to build a majority in parliament, or call an election.
Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the opposition center-left Democratic Party, repeated a proposal to form a transitional government spanning the political spectrum.
"We have to give Europe and the world an urgent, strong signal that we are taking things seriously," he told a morning TV show by phone.
After failing to secure a majority in a vote in the lower house on Tuesday night, Berlusconi said he would quit as soon as parliament passed budget reforms to help Italy stave off a debt crisis that is threatening the entire euro zone.
Berlusconi, who has been under pressure to resign for weeks as markets pummelled Italy, also said his decision to resign was "a gesture of responsibility" to the country.
But he said he was opposed to any form of transitional or national unity government - which the opposition and many on the markets favor - and that early elections was the only alternative.
Markets showed little or no relief that a man they saw as an obstacle to economic reform planned to leave office. The yield on Italy's 10-year benchmark bonds rose sharply to near 7.00 percent, a level widely seen as unsustainable at which Portugal, Greece and Ireland were forced to seek a bailout.
In a separate interview with La Stampa newspaper, Berlusconi said he saw an election being held at the start of February and that PDL party secretary and former justice minister Angelino Alfano would be the center-right's candidate for prime minister. "I will resign as soon as the (budget) law is passed, and, since I believe there is no other majority possible, I see elections being held at the beginning of February and I will not be a candidate in them."
Berlusconi's delayed resignation is highly unusual in Italy and several left-wing newspapers suggested he might be playing for time and would not eventually step down. But he gave a string of interviews yesterday underlining that he would resign.
Commentators said the fact that President Giorgio Napolitano had announced the resignation plan in an official statement would make if extremely difficult for Berlusconi to renege. They suggested that his priority now was to keep his center-right coalition in power.
Votes on the economic reforms in both houses of parliament are likely this month. Opposition leaders may try to bring them forward in order to end as soon as possible the flamboyant billionaire media tycoon's 17-year dominance of Italian politics.
Napolitano said he would start consultations with all political parties after the new budget measures were approved. When a government is defeated or resigns, it is the president's duty to appoint a new leader to try to build a majority in parliament, or call an election.
Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the opposition center-left Democratic Party, repeated a proposal to form a transitional government spanning the political spectrum.
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