THE END IS NEAR FOR BERLUSCONI’S POLITICAL ERA
ROME, Italy – Berlusconi has scheduled a cabinet meeting for Saturday evening and it could be his last. He said he would step down once the austerity measures become law after losing his parliamentary majority in a budget vote last Tuesday.The Italian parliament is debating a package of austerity measures demanded by the European Union, and its passage is expected to be followed by an announcement that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will tender his resignation. The same belt-tightening plan was passed Friday by the country's senate with little opposition.
"If all this goes to plan, and of course it doesn't always go to plan with European politics, the next stage will be to form a new government. It will be a technocrat government with Mario Monti (right photo) taking charge — that's who's tipped to take charge anyway," CBC freelance contributor Dominic Valitis reported..- There a very sharp contrast between
Monti and Berlusconi. The latter has been at the heart of Italian politics for the last 17 years, but more recently he has been ridiculed and embroiled in legal action for hosting parties at which magistrates say he entertained starlets and prostitutes. Monte is a former economics professor and on Wednesday Italian President Giorgio Napolitano named him a senator for life. 
"They are very different people indeed. Monti is a former European Union commissioner with some pretty heavy connections within the EU. He is a tough negotiator. He's not afraid of a fight. He's been known to take on big corporations," Valitis reported.- Italy is under intense pressure to quickly put in place a new and effective government to replace Berlusconi, one that can push through tough reforms to reduce Italy's staggering sovereign debt, pegged at €1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion).
The economic reforms include increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67, starting in 2026, but do nothing to open up Italy's inflexible labour market. The measures also call for the privatization of some municipal services as well as the sale of state-owned real estate.Italy's public debt totals twice that facing Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined. An Italian default could tear apart the coalition of 17 countries that use the euro as a common currency and deal a strong blow to the economies of industrialized countries struggling to avoid recessions.
I AM NOT A SAINT SAY ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER
I'm no saint!... Berlusconi (centre) with Obama (left) and Russian premier Medevedev on the right. - Reuters pic
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, dogged by accusations of cavorting with teenagers and high-end prostitutes, said today he was “no saint” and vowed to govern until the end of his mandate.
- In his first public remarks since newspapers posted audio tapes of conversations supposedly between him and an escort, a defiant Berlusconi sought to dismiss the scandal with one of his trademark quips.
“I am not a saint, you’ve all understood that. I hope those at La Repubblica also understand it,” he said, referring to the left-leaning daily which has led demands that he clear up aspects of his personal life.
The websites of La Repubblica and weekly magazine L’Espresso have posted recordings of conversations they said were between Berlusconi and Patrizia D’Addario, an escort who says she and other women were paid to attend parties at Berlusconi’s residence in Rome.
The 72-year old conservative prime minister, who often boasts of his sexual prowess, has not denied that D’Addario went to his home, but has said that he did not know she was an escort and that he has never paid for sex.
D’Addario, 42, says she made the recordings during a night she spent with the prime minister on Nov. 4, 2008. the date of US President Barack Obama’s historic election victory and during various telephone conversations.
She has handed the tapes to magistrates investigating a businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, on suspicion of providing paid escorts to curry political favours for an enterprise in the southern city of Bari, from where D’Addario also hails.
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