Processo Ruby, Berlusconi in aula "Mantengo ragazze rovinate da pm"

L'ex premier a Palazzo di Giustizia per l'udienza. Deve rispondere di concussione e prostituzione minorile. Sui travestimenti: "Erano gare di burlesque". "Le donne sono esibizioniste". "I costumi regalati da Gheddafi". La testimonianza di diversi funzionari della polizia. L'agente Iafrate rivela che la giovane marocchina le disse che non era nipote Mubarak

MILANO -  "Mantengo queste ragazze, perché hanno avuto la vita rovinata da questo processo", ha detto Silvio Berlusconi in un intervallo del processo sul caso Ruby ¹, in corso a Milano, in cui è imputato per concussione e prostituzione minorile. A sorpresa questa mattina l'ex premier è arrivato a Palazzo di Giustizia per assistere all'udienza. 

Parlando delle giovani ha detto che in molte hanno perso il lavoro, "il fidanzato e forse non lo troveranno più" e in alcuni casi i genitori "hanno chiuso il loro esercizio commerciale". Una trentina di ragazze si sono vista la vita "rovinata" dal processo in quanto hanno avuto "come unico torto accettare un invito a cena da me". In serata, tornando sul tema del mantenimento delle giovani ha aggiunto: "Quando uno ha una barca non deve preoccuparsi di quanto costa l'equipaggio". 

"I travestimenti erano gare di burlesque". L'ex premier ha ribadito che a casa sua si tenevano solo "cene eleganti" e che dopo cena si scendeva al piano sottostante in un locale "che era la vecchia discoteca dei miei figli". A chi gli ha fatto notare che le ragazze facevano spettacoli con travestimenti da poliziotta e altro.

Berlusconi ha sottolineato "facevano gare di burlesque ³e si esercitavano".  E ancora: "Le ragazze, le donne sono per loro natura esibizioniste".  In seguito ha parlato di atmosfera di "gioiosità, serenità e simpatia". Nel pomeriggio, rispondendo ancora una volta a una domanda sul burlesque, Berlusconi ha detto che riprenderebbe a fare "le gare di burlesque" a casa sua, perché è uno spettacolo che a lui piace molto "meno estremo di quello che si vede in Tv e in teatro". 

"I costumi regalati da Gheddafi". L'ex premier ha dichiarato che non c'era nessun travestimento da suora, ma che le giovani ospiti delle cene per mascherarsi avevano a disposizione una sessantina di costumi, regalati a Berlusconi dall'ex leader libico Muhammar Gheddafi. Ha inoltre ribadito di non aver aver "mai pagato una donna per fare sesso". Durante la sua deposizione ha aggiunto che era suo "dovere fare quella telefonata in questura" perchè la ragazza gli era stata segnalata come la nipote di Mubarak. 

"Ruby? Mi ha fatto pena". L'ex premier ha risposto a una domanda sui suoi rapporti con Ruby. "Mi ha fatto pena. Ha raccontato una vita drammatica dicendo di essere stata buttata fuori dalla famiglia, perché si era convertita alla religione cattolica. Si era costruita un'esistenza fantasiosa, vergognandosi della realtà. Decidemmo di aiutarla per evitare che si prostituisse".  Ora però, ha aggiunto prima di lasciare Palazzo di Giustizia, non viene dato più alcun aiuto alla ragazza, perché "ha trovato una persona perbene che l'ha sposata".

"Il video di Fini? Una balla". Alla domanda del video su il presidente della Camera, Gianfranco Fini, l'ex premier ha risposto: "E' una balla", smentendo di avere mai fatto vedere un video satirico con protagonista Fini a una delle sue ospiti. A parlarne, sentita come teste in aula, era stata una delle ragazze che frequentavano villa San Martino, Imane Fadhil. Il  racconto della giovane marocchina viene smentito da Berlusconi che chiude il discorso con un "stiamo valutando una denuncia per diffamazione".

Le testimonianze. Oggi in aula è stato il momento delle testimonianze di Giorgia Iafrate, Pietro Ostuni e altri due funzionari di polizia di turno in questura a Milano la notte tra il 27 e il 28 maggio 2010. Quel giorno Berlusconi telefonò più volte chiedendo che Ruby, fermata per un furto, fosse affidata alla consigliera regionale Pdl Nicole Minetti. L'ex presidente del Consiglio motivò la richiesta dicendo che la giovane marocchina era la nipote dell'ex presidente egiziano Hosni Mubarak.

Il colloquio con la ragazza. "Fu Ruby a dirmi di non essere la nipote di Mubarak, ma che a volte si spacciava come tale" ha dichiarato Giorgia Iafrate al banco dei testimoni. Secondo la teste, dunque, era chiaro fin dall'inizio che la giovane non era la nipote del presidente egiziano.   "Non ci fu nemmeno bisogno di attivare il canale diplomatico", ha precisato Iafrate  spiegando di aver riferito al capo di gabinetto della Questura di Milano Ostuni del suo colloquio con la ragazza marocchina.
 La telefonata di Berlusconi. Del fatto che Ruby non fosse la nipote di Mubarak era convinto anche Ostuni. In aula il capo di gabinetto ha raccontato della telefonata che ricevette la sera del 27 maggio quando il caposcorta gli passò al telefono l'allora premier, Berlusconi. "Mi disse che c'era una ragazza in questura che gli era stata segnalata come nipote di Mubarak e che sarebbe arrivata la consigliera parlamentare Nicole Minetti che si sarebbe fatta carico della situazione per l'affidamento".

Il ruolo della Minetti. La ragazza fu affidata a Nicole Minetti tra le 2 e 2,30, mentre la famiglia della minore in Sicilia fu contattata solo verso le 4 del 28 maggio.  Dal racconto di Ostuni emerge che "non c'era altra possibilità oltre all'affidamento alla signora Minetti dal momento che mancavano posti disponibili nelle comunità e che non si poteva trattenere una minore in questura per la notte". Il pm dei minori aveva dato indicazioni di identificare con certezza la ragazza e di affidarla a qualcuno solo dopo aver adempiuto a tale dovere.

(20 aprile 2012)

http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2012/04/20/news/processo_ruby_berlusconi_in_aula-33624884/index.html?ref=search

The 100 Most Influential People in the World

Mario Monti    Prime Minister

By LARRY SUMMERS                                                Wednesday, Apr. 18, 2012

They are the people who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world. Meet the breakouts, pioneers, moguls, leaders and icons who make up this year's TIME 100

At this moment, Mario Monti is the world's most important ex-economics professor. True, Ben Bernanke's monetary-policy decisions will move the needle in the U.S., but the fate of a continent rests on Monti's shoulders. If he can continue to institute meaningful reform, Europe will successfully weather the debt crisis. If he cannot, the vision of a unified Europe will unravel.Already he has pulled Italy from the ledge by standing up to vested interests — taxi drivers, pharmacists and railway workers — to increase competition and renew economic vitality. Instituting these reforms took great courage, particularly in a country where leaders have too often proved beholden to powerful lobbies. He has taken painful steps to cut spending, raise taxes and reduce Italy's budget deficit. As a result, the nation's bond yields have tightened significantly, and imminent fears about the monetary union's collapse have subsided.Monti, 69, knows that growth is what is most important. Reforming Italy's two-tier labor system to foster such growth will be his most arduous task. However, given the courage and dexterity he's displayed thus far, I trust that he's up to the challenge. The stakes could hardly be higher.Summers is a former Treasury Secretary and current professor at Harvard University

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2111997,00.html

Berlusconi to abandon frontline politics

February 3, 2012 3:46 pm

By Guy Dinmore and Giulia Segreti in Rome

Silvio Berlusconi has declared he is “stepping aside” from frontline Italian politics, revealing he has no intention of running again as prime minister.

In his first interview since resigning amid turmoil on financial markets in November, Mr Berlusconi spoke to the Financial Times at his Rome residence on subjects from what he called a media-inspired furore over his “bunga bunga” parties to his anger at “leftwing” magistrates hounding him in the courts and his drive to promote political and judicial reforms.

Mr Berlusconi also gave his strongest endorsement to date of the technocratic government led by Mario Monti which took over from his own, in particular its intention to implement labour market reforms opposed by trade unions.

Mr Berlusconi’s praise for Mr Monti – uttered with no conditions attached, although with some reservations over tax increases imposed in December – is likely to please investors and European leaders concerned that Italy’s former prime minister might try to destabilise the new government and stage a political comeback.

“I have now stepped aside, even in my party,” Mr Berlusconi said, noting his three election victories since 1994 had made him Italy’s longest serving postwar prime minister. His centre-right People of Liberty party is entering a transition period after 18 years under his leadership.

Mr Berlusconi said he resigned in November because he had been attacked “by an obsessive campaign by the national and foreign media that blamed me personally and the government for the high spread of Italian state bonds and the crisis on the stock market”.

“After having evaluated the causes of the crisis, which did not rest in Italy but in Europe and the euro, I believed that if I had stayed in government I would have damaged Italy as we would have had more terrible media campaigns,” he said.

“With a sense of responsibility, though having a majority in both houses of parliament … I stepped aside and with elegance.”

An animated Mr Berlusconi insisted that he was “still young” at 75, showing a bruise he said came from playing ice hockey with Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister. But Mr Berlusconi indicated that he would be getting too old to run for prime minister again in elections expected in the spring of 2013.

Instead Mr Berlusconi reiterated his backing for Angelino Alfano, the 41-year-old former justice minister from Sicily and secretary of his People of Liberty party, as his heir apparent. But for the first time he also made clear that the party, still the largest in parliament, would hold primaries to choose its candidate for prime minister.

Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul, showed he had no intention of quitting politics entirely, signalling that he would remain influential behind the scenes as the party’s “founding father”. He also said he might stand for election as a member of parliament, saying that opinion polls gave him much higher ratings than France’s Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel in Germany.

“I still have strong popular backing, almost twice as much as my colleagues Merkel and Sarkozy,” he said. “In opinion polls, I personally have 36 per cent support. If I walk out in the street I stop the traffic. I am a public danger and I cannot go out to do the shopping!”

Mr Berlusconi’s declarations – which will doubtless be met with scepticism by his critics – could throw wide open the race to succeed the unelected Mr Monti who has also made clear that he will not stand for office when his mandate is over.

Mr Alfano’s bid for the party leadership is not assured. And the centre-left Democratic party, led by Pierluigi Bersani, is sorely divided over Mr Monti’s proposed labour reforms. Commentators anticipate a wholesale shake-up of Italian politics, with attention focusing on whether Corrado Passera – the former head of Intesa Sanpaolo, a major bank, chosen as industry minister by Mr Monti – will decide to run for office.

Showing flashes of his former combative self, Mr Berlusconi said Italy’s postwar constitution made the country virtually ungovernable and needed reforms to give the prime minister more authority, cut the number of small parties in parliament and limit the influence of what he called a leftist-dominated judiciary that meddled in politics.

“The hope is that this government, which is supported for the first time by the whole of parliament, will have the chance to propose great structural reforms, starting from the state’s institutional architecture, without which we cannot think of having a modern and truly free and democratic country,” he said.

While attacking the foreign media in particular for damaging his image abroad over his alleged personal scandals, Mr Berlusconi said he was “serene” about the outcome of his two separate trials on charges – which he denies – of corrupting his former UK lawyer to give false evidence, and having a relationship with an alleged underage prostitute.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/65784254-4e6e-11e1-8670-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1lMErflea

The wishes and worries of a parenthetic revolutionary

By Peter Spiegel and Guy Dinmore

Italy’s technocratic prime minister has no criticism of ratings downgrades – just of persistent policy weakness at the European leveI

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If there is anyone who should be angered by Standard & Poor’s raft of eurozone downgrades, it would seemingly be the prime minister of Italy, whose debt was cut two notches with a warning of more to come. But on the first trading day after the credit rating agency’s verdict, Mario Monti – a respected economist who became Italy’s technocratic premier after the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi in November – is buoyant.

In an interview, not only does Mr Monti tell the Financial Times he agrees with almost everything in S&P’s analysis, but he jokes that he could almost have written it himself.

“If I ever dictated anything, it must have been what S&P had to say about domestic Italian economic policy,” he chuckles, before quickly correcting himself: “I never said the three letters BBB,” a reference to Italy’s new S&P rating of triple B plus. Apart from Cyprus, it is the lowest standing of any country in the eurozone not to have undergone a recent bail-out.

So pleased is Mr Monti with the report that on Monday he almost bounds to pick up a copy. It lies on his desk, a grandiose antique befitting the gold leaf, chandeliers and frescoed ceiling of his Roman office but cluttered with the detritus of a workaday economist: teetering stacks of paper, a half-empty plastic bottle of water, a personal inkjet printer.

The reason for his pleasure is apparent as he reads from the report. “It’s very interesting when they go through the various factors, and concerning the political risk factor they say there is one negative: ‘The European policymaking and political institutions, with which Italy is closely integrated’,” he says. “And then they go on, saying, ‘Nevertheless, we have not changed our political risk score for Italy. We believe that the weakening policy environment at European level is to a certain degree offset by a strong domestic Italian capacity’.”

The upshot is clear: Mr Monti’s 60 days in office have been enough to convince the agency that his government is on a path of reform that could return the country to growth and shrink its debt levels, but that European Union mismanagement of the eurozone debt crisis is dragging down struggling countries, including Italy with its €1,900bn ($2,400bn) debt mountain.

The prime minister’s endorsement of the judgment is all the more remarkable as it comes as many of his counterparts have spent the days since last Friday’s downgrades condemning the analysis. Olli Rehn, economics chief at the European Commission, the EU’s executive, regretted the downgrades and called them “inconsistent”, while other Commission officials intimated that S&P was improperly trying to inject itself into decision-making. Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, opined that the rating agency had misunderstood how much progress had been made.

“I think I’m the only one in Europe not to have criticised the rating agencies,” Mr Monti boasts.

His challenge to European economic orthodoxy could mark a new, uncertain direction for management of the eurozone crisis. Until now, leaders in the single currency’s debt-laden periphery who fell into the EU elite’s “good student” category – Ireland’s Brian Cowen, Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Greece’s George Papandreou – were cast aside once they lost domestic political support.

But at 68, Mr Monti appears unwilling to play the good student and comes with the credibility and stature those others lacked. He spent 10 years holding two of the European Commission’s most important economic portfolios – taking on Microsoft and General Electric as competition commissioner, after five years overseeing financial regulation and the EU’s internal market – while the likes of Angela Merkel of Germany and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy were still junior ministers.

His long résumé in Brussels may leave him vulnerable at home, where his lack of formal political allies and electoral mandate complicates his reform efforts, a point he readily admits. But that same international standing poses an unprecedented and potentially uncomfortable dynamic for high-level decision-making in Brussels, particularly since Mr Monti is seen – rightly or wrongly – as having been the EU leadership’s preferred candidate to replace the troublesome Mr Berlusconi. He is, in that sense, a challenger from the inside.

. . .

Over the course of the 90-minute interview, Mr Monti is careful not to challenge his counterparts directly. Asked whether the S&P analysis is a condemnation of Ms Merkel, who is widely viewed as the driver of the current response to the eurozone crisis, he is diplomatic: “I don’t think we can really single out one country or one person,” he says.

Later on, when asked how concerned he is that strikes by taxi drivers and pharmacists could derail his reforms at home, he insists that when he wakes up in the morning, he is more concerned with “European leadership” than domestic unrest. “European leadership – not the German chancellor,” he quickly clarifies.

Despite this diplomacy, his ensuing analysis directly challenges the Berlin consensus that financial markets will respond in a positive manner only to hefty doses of bitter austerity medicine. Growth and not austerity should be the focus of eurozone policymaking, Mr Monti says, and more effort should be made to drive down borrowing costs of the struggling periphery – a stance that German officials have pointedly resisted, fearing it will relieve pressure on Greece, Spain and, most prominently, Italy to reform.

“I am never saying to Italians that I’m asking for huge sacrifices because Germany or the ECB or the EU asks us to do so,” Mr Monti says. “This would be disloyal, and I’m convinced it is for the good of future generations of Italians. But as the country approaches a structure that is the one that Europe wants each country to have, there has to be a visible improvement somewhere else. In a country like Italy now, the somewhere else can only be interest rates [on Italian bonds].”

The relationship between Mr Monti and Ms Merkel could prove the pivotal one in the next phase of the crisis, particularly as Mr Sarkozy becomes more preoccupied with his own survival with French elections just months away. Ms Merkel has showered praise on Mr Monti’s efforts. But by pressing for help in pushing down bond yields, he is making clear that he wants something in return – be it a commitment to so-called “eurobonds” backed by all 17 eurozone members or an increase in the €440bn eurozone rescue fund. Both of those would rely heavily on Germany’s balance sheet and both have been resisted by Berlin.

“I’m convinced, and the IMF is also convinced, that the more pledges are made [to the rescue fund], the higher the volume of pledges made, the smaller the probability that a single euro of cash will have to be disbursed,” Mr Monti says.

The relationship could prove difficult, not least because of the battering Italy took from EU leaders during Mr Berlusconi’s reign. Mr Monti makes clear he feels the need to show Italy his economic reforms are being driven by more than “just a pat on the shoulder to the prime minister by chancellor Merkel”. Italians can be won over only if they “see that the country is well-respected in Europe – don’t underestimate this aspect”, he adds.

Germany may be the most important EU economy but at the same time “it is one of us and it also has obligations to which it normally complies”, Mr Monti says, recalling run-ins he had with Berlin as a commissioner. “Certainly the bigger you are the more responsibilities you have and I think that, as also I hope, there will be an EU push for growth, just as a push in fiscal discipline; Germany will have to play a huge role.”

. . .

Italy’s next push for growth comes on Thursday when the cabinet is set to approve what Mr Monti calls a “huge set of measures to open competition”. Targets are taxi operators, pharmacies, energy providers and professions such as doctors, lawyers and notaries. The move is aimed at “the little and big rents and privileges that were the sedimentation of decades of private anticompetitive practices” as well as restrictions imposed by the public sector.

Although he sees his administration as a “parenthesis” before the return of a democratically elected government, Mr Monti agrees he could be bringing about a “revolution”, at least in terms of the number of measures he intends to pass before elections due next year.

Will it last? If Italians see their nation’s cost of borrowing falling, “the political parties will not dare stop the experiment before it has to stop”, he replies. “And in my view the political parties will not dare go back to the acrimonious, superficial and tough confrontation that animated parliament. The image and style of the public debate has changed.”

Despite the net €20bn austerity package of higher taxes and cuts in public spending passed last month, aimed at eliminating the budget deficit by 2013, Mr Monti has little to show so far in terms of restored market confidence. Already back in recession, Italy risks a death spiral of falling output requiring more austerity. The yield gap between Italian and German 10-year bonds remains at around 5 percentage points, at a rate close to an unsustainable 7 per cent.

“Monti is putting pressure on Germany because the markets are heaping more pressure on Italy. S&P’s downgrade brings Italy’s credit rating closer to junk status,” says Nicholas Spiro, a London-based sovereign debt analyst. “Italy has its back up against the wall and has not been the master of its own destiny for some time.”

For the moment, Mr Monti has public support behind him. He notes that “monumental” pension reforms adopted last month – to the envy of France – were met by only three hours of strike action. His approval rating as measured by Ipsos, a polling agency, stands at 61 per cent, more than double Mr Berlusconi’s and comfortably above that of Pierluigi Bersani, whose centre-left coalition would probably win elections if the government were suddenly to fall.

Too much success could also be a problem, Mr Monti says. Parties could become “jealous” if they see public support for technocrats remaining high while confidence in political parties remains low. Mr Berlusconi’s People of Liberty and Mr Bersani’s Democrats are in such disarray over policies and future leadership that they are in no state to risk early elections, which most Italians do not want.

“If and when success comes, you will find us not really taking credit,” he says. But returning to his favourite theme, the prime minister concludes: “My ambition is that Italy becomes a boring country, in relative terms. It is really in the hands of Europe.”

Additional reporting by Giulia Segreti

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/faaef4aa-4101-11e1-b521-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jd2gPpw1

Costa Concordia operator to face US lawsuit

Lucinda Beaman, Alexander Christie-Miller in Istanbul and James Bone in Giglio Island

Last updated January 21 2012 8:44AM

A class action lawsuit against Costa Cruises, the company that operated the Costa Concordia, will be launched in the US next week on behalf of the thousands of passengers of the disaster-struck ship.

The Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Italy last week, with 11 people confirmed dead and 21 passengers still missing. Hundreds were injured.

Codacons, Italy’s consumer association and two US law firms told the BBC they would file the suit against Costa Cruises on behalf of the ship’s passengers. The law firms said they would be asking for at least $160,000 (£105,000) for each passenger, of which there were more than 3,000.

Mitchell Proner, a lawyer with US law firm Proner & Proner, told the broadcaster: “Along with Codacons, we have formed an association and our firms are collectively going to be filing a suit in Miami, by Wednesday next week, on behalf of all the victims of the Costa Concordia disaster.”

Mr Proner said claimants would be seeking compensation for continued medical care, loss of earnings as well as the psychological impact they had suffered while trying to get off the ship. He said that some of the claimants would seek two or three times the minimum claim, while the worse cases could seek as much as 1 million euro.

In a statement, Costa Cruises said that while the company was currently focusing on the immediate tragedy, as an “initial gesture” it had sent letters to passengers “asking them to detail their expenses and any costs they might have incurred so reimbursements can be made.”

Marco Ramadori, the president of Codacons, said Costa Cruises’ offer was insufficient.

“They are offering to refund the cost of the ticket as if you had missed a plane and lost your luggage. You cannot compare the two,” he said.

Costa Cruises has begun the process of launching a civil claim against Franceso Schettino, Costa Concordia’s captain, in Italy, but Mr Proner said that the firm could not pin all responsibility for the disaster on a “rogue captain”.

A British survivor has also begun legal action against Costa Cruises for losing her husband’s ashes at sea. Sandra Rodgers, 62, from Chester, who lives in Menorca, said: “We had planned to scatter Barry’s ashes when the cruise passed Monaco, because he had always wanted to see the Monaco Grand Prix.”

Meanwhile, Father Raffaele Malena, the ship’s chaplain, has recounted how Mr Schettino wept in his arms on the shore of the island of Giglio in the hours after the boat ran aground.

“I spoke to the captain. He embraced me for about a quarter of an hour and cried like a baby,” Father Malena told French magazineFamille Chrétienne.

Questions have also been raised about whether the Moldovan hostess seen dining with the captain of the Costa Concordia was warned that the ship was going down long before the call to abandon ship.

Domnica Cemortan, 25, had all her belongings with her as others left with nothing, said Alexander Banescu, a fitness instructor who had been working on the liner for four months.

“I heard that she was on the bridge when it happened,” he told The Times. “I think she was on the first boat off. The crew members all left the ship with nothing. She was wearing warm clothes and had her bag packed. She had everything — her documents, her money. How could she have known?”

Ms Cemortan had spent six months on the ship as an interpreter for Russian passengers, but stayed aboard at Civitavecchia as a passenger. “Everyone knows she was there for a reason,” Mr Banescu, 25, said. “We heard that she is [the captain’s] girlfriend.”

Ms Cemortan, who had worked as a cruise ship dancer, insisted yesterday that she was not Captain Francesco Schettino’s lover. She told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: “He always shows everyone photos of his daughter when she was young. A man who wants a lover doesn’t behave like that.”

She said that she was a regular ticketed passenger with a cabin. “I bought the ticket in Italy with my own money.” Ms Cemortan has said that she was dining with friends in the restaurant on Deck 3, and the captain was not with them. When the lights went out, she was alerted by a “coded alarm” known openly to the crew.

She climbed on to the bridge to help to translate officers’ instructions for Russian passengers. “I repeated in Russian what he [the captain] or his deputy told me in Italian. ‘Go back to your cabins. It’s only an electrical fault.’ This phrase I repeated ten times. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what was happening.” She said that she left the ship at 11.50pm, leaving the captain on the bridge.

Her account of the announcements was reinforced by amateur video that recorded the crew telling passengers: “Go back to your cabins please. We have made an announcement in the name of the captain. We have finished dealing with the problem that we have with the generator.” The announcement ended: “It’s all under control.”

Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, said he could not sleep because of the “neither normal nor justifiable” delay of over an hour in abandoning ship. “If it had been abandoned earlier, we would not have lost any human lives,” he told Corriere della Sera. He firmly denied suggestions that company officials ashore had delayed the evacuation to avoid paying compensation to passengers, and suggested that Captain Schettino had misled the company. “I believe he hasn’t been honest with us,” he said.

The wreck of the Costa Concordia was slipping at up to 1.5cm an hour yesterday, raising fears that it could slide down a nearby slope and break up. Divers suspended the search, but a robot equipped with remote control cameras surveyed the vessel.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3293962.ece

Italy's great liberaliser?

An interview with Mario Monti

Jan 17th 2012, 15:54 by J.H. | ROME

ITALY's prime minister, Mario Monti, is due to arrive in London tomorrow on the latest stage of a diplomatic offensive that has once again made his country a leading player in the euro-zone crisis.

Before the next European Union summit, on January 30th, Mr Monti is expected to hold a meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Herman Van Rompuy, the head of the European Council. Italy, it seems fair to say, is back at the top table after being quietly shoved off under the leadership of Silvio Berlusconi.

Britain’s refusal to sign up to the proposed fiscal compact between EU member states in December makes David Cameron, the prime minister, a special case. Mr Monti feels it would be unrealistic to expect him to go back on his decision.

But he is anxious to involve the British as much as possible. “The more the UK feels distanced from European construction the less others are able to benefit from the full influence of the many good things that the UK can help us all to achieve, and therefore there are many areas where I think it would be beneficial to have the UK fully at the table,” says the former economics professor in his characteristically unhurried, measured way.

Mr Monti, who served as the EU’s competition commissioner between 1999 and 2004, is that rare thing, an Italian economic liberal. That should help him to build bridges to the isolated Mr Cameron.

On the contentious issue of a financial-transactions tax, however, Mr Monti, once a critic of the idea, now shares Mrs Merkel’s view that it would be desirable if only it could be agreed among all 27 EU member states. Still, given that Mr Cameron has a veto this is unlikely to happen.

Mr Monti's central message, to both Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel, has been that the EU must move beyond enforcing fiscal discipline to stimulate growth, a view repeated by Standard & Poor's as it downgraded nine euro-zone countries, including Italy, on January 13th. That, thinks Mr Monti, means not only finding ways to lower interest rates, but encouraging liberalisation wherever possible.

Mr Monti is not a proponent of harrying Berlin to boost its domestic consumption. But he would very much like to see the Germans do more to liberalise services. He acknowledges that “It is rather unusual for Italy to be at the forefront of pro-market initiatives.” But he plans soon to practise at home what he has been preaching abroad. “I am convinced that it is also in Italy's national interest,” he says.

Within a few days Mr Monti is expected to unveil an extensive package of measures designed to free up markets and increase competition in a country where cosy cartels have long been the norm. Since his government of technocrats, which took office in November 2011, is also trying to force labour-market reform on the trade unions and fiscal compliance on Italy’s legendarily tax-shy self-employed, this might seem a bridge too far.

But the prime minister has at least two advantages: his experience in Brussels grappling with multinationals and national governments, and the fact that his government is not beholden to any one political faction or interest group.

Though unelected, and responsible for an emergency budget in December that inflicted considerable pain on Italians, Mr Monti’s administration remains surprisingly popular. Mr Monti believes that “there was in Italy a hidden demand for a boring government which would try to tell the truth in non-political jargon.”

Some would add that it has also benefited from the sheer terror spread among Italians by the way the euro-zone crisis has engulfed their country. Benchmark sovereign-bond yields that have repeatedly bobbed above 7% and a spread between Italian and German debt that has frequently topped 500 basis points may help explain why they have been so ready to entrust their fate to a government of perceived experts. So far.

The danger now is that the “spread effect” could turn against the prime minister. Many Italians believed that the ditching of Mr Berlusconi would save them from further contagion. The fact that bond yields have not returned to anything close to normal makes some wonder if it was worthwhile.

“Austerity is not enough, even for budgetary discipline, if economic activity does not pick up a decent rate of growth," Mr Monti warns. "A lowering in interest rates does not depend only on Italy's efforts but also, and essentially, on Europe's ability to confront the crisis in a more decisive way." He has told the leaders of the less-indebted euro-zone nations that unless they act soon to bring interest rates down, his government could be replaced by something far harder for them to deal with.

When Mr Monti referred earlier this month to the threat of growing Euroscepticism in Italy, it was widely taken as an allusion to the populist Northern League, Mr Berlusconi's junior coalition partner during his time in office. But, he says, the danger is much broader than that. “What I see now, week after week, in parliament is a widening of the spread of this attitude... The degree of impatience-cum-hostility to the EU, to Germany and to the ECB is mounting.”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2012/01/interview-mario-monti