Silvio Berlusconi was clinging to power last night, hoping to force a showdown vote in the Italian Parliament so that he can look his enemies in the eye.
“I want to see the faces of those who are trying to betray me,” he told the right-wing newspaper Libero. Facing a backbench rebellion in a budget vote today, the Italian Prime Minister was under pressure to stand down to calm financial markets.
He made an unscheduled trip to Milan to consult his children and coalition partners amid rumours that he would resign within hours but then used his Facebook page to deny the rumours and later insisted that he would push for a confidence vote, which his Government looks likely to win after the Italian President asked that the crucial appropriations Bill be allowed to go through.
A planned abstention by the opposition and up to 40 rebels within his party, however, would show that Mr Berlusconi no longer commanded a majority. Opposition leaders said that if he refused to go in such circumstances, they would force a confidence vote to drive him out.
Mr Berlusconi told Libero that after the budget vote, he would ask for a confidence vote on the reform package he has promised to the EU and the European Central Bank.
The Italian Prime Minister had reportedly been told by his closest aides after returning from the G20 summit in Cannes on Friday that he had 72 hours to save his government — a deadline that expired last night.
If Mr Berlusconi is forced out, President Napolitano is expected to ask a technocrat, probably the former Italian EU Commissioner Mario Monti, to form a government to enact EU-mandated reforms. Mr Berlusconi’s Northern League coalition partners are insisting, however, that the country goes straight to the polls.
The dramas in Italy and Greece threatened to overshadow a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels last night to discuss enhancing the European Finacial Stability Facility.
In France, President Sarkozy staked his political future on a painful austerity package . The measures will strike at the heart of the Gallic way of life through a rise from 5.5 to 7 cent in VAT on restaurants, restrictions on health spending and an unprecedented move to reduce welfare benefits.
Aides presented the initiave as a do-or-die moment for the President, who is trailing François Hollande, the Socialist candidate, in the polls. But Benoît Hamon, a spokesman for the Socialist Party, said the plan would “dilapidate the French social model and cause economic and social disorder”. The measures, which were outlined by Prime Minister François Fillon, will result in a saving of €7 billion next year.
The President imposed a dose of austerity on himself and his ministers by freezing their salaries for as long as the French state is in the red. The aim of the French strategy is to maintain the country’s AAA rating, which allows it to borrow money at a relatively manageable interest rate. “If Nicolas Sarkozy loses the triple A, he’s dead,” said one of his advisers.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3218767.ece
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