Italy’s credit rating may be heading south and plenty of businesses are struggling to survive, but in a country where so much is hidden, there is often growth where you don’t see it, writes Jo McKenna, a Rome-based freelance journalist.
Silvio Berlusconi
Monti woos with his package, unlike Silvio, who ‘who hooed’ with his
There wasn’t an empty seat in the house when Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti greeted an eager foreign press yesterday with his €30 billion emergency package, writes Josephine McKenna, a freelance journalist in Rome.
Guy Rundle: Europe’s stuck, nothing changes in Italy, and the Pope must die
So Europe remains stuck in a common currency whose structural flaws it cannot resolve — and certainly cannot resolve without major reform in Italy, where the breathing space offered by the appointment of Mario Monti has been resisted.
Rundle in Rome: peoples of Europe rise up, and demand la dolce vita
Southern Europe has held to an entirely different conception of life, one in which full human beings still have room to breathe. As the Eurozone collapses, the people of Europe should look to them now for how to live.
Maley: the market’s Spanish inquisition
The new Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy faces a test of fire this week, as investors query whether the country will be able to protect itself from being engulfed by the raging eurozone debt crisis.
Can new leaders end the eurozone debt crisis?
Weeks of political upheaval resulted in both Greece and Italy getting new heads of government. But the replacements will have to face the same difficult economic circumstances that killed the political careers of their former leaders, says Michael S
Guy Rundle: Italy’s Monti appointment a concession to bewilderment
The very fact that Monti and Papademos can step so easily into their appointed roles is clear evidence that the European political crisis began long before they got the call.
Maley: ducking Merkozy’s heavy hand
Is Europe getting fed up with Merkozy — as the cosy duo of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has come to be known?
Berlusconi: embodying the best and the worst of the Italian ethos
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is on the way out, but what kept him in power so long? It wasn’t his immense wealth — it was his embodiment of the Italian equivalent of the American dream, writes Barbie Latza Nadeua.
Maley: feuding over a French firewall
Tensions between Paris and Berlin are set to flare, as fears grow that the flames of the debt crisis now engulfing Italy could soon spread to Belgium and France.
Celebrations under way as Berlusconi gets a shove from above
For a country that so often moves at a mediaeval pace, it has been an whirlwind 24 hours in Italian politics, writes Jo McKenna, a Rome-based freelance journalist.
Guy Rundle: New PM in Italy, but not yet; new PM in Greece, but not yet …
Europe remains — wait for it wait for it — yes, in crisis today, with the announcement that Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will resign — but not yet, and announcements that Greece will soon announce a new prime minister and Cabinet — but not yet.
Hi ho, Silvio, away … for isolated Berlusconi, it’s the end
Silvio Berlusconi’s once formidable majority was in disarray and he had failed to win back several disillusioned loyalists who publicly abandoned him, writes Jo McKenna, a Rome-based freelance journalist.
Bye bye Mr Bunga-Bunga: Berlusconi on the way out
Italy’s controversial gaffe manufacturing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has announced he will resign after new austerity measures are passed, reports The Financial Times.
Rundle: why Europe is trapped in the death spiral
In the end, it all depends on Greece. If that can be held together, Italy can be stabilised, and so on. If not, it all goes, and before Christmas.
Maley: a bitter end for Berlusconi
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was fighting for his political survival overnight, as Italy’s borrowing costs reached new highs.
Berlusconi’s final week?
The demise of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi now seems inevitable, writes Barbie Latza Nadeau. But don’t count out the sex scandal loving 75-year-old completely, he could make a comeback in the next elections…
Maley: PM is gone as Greece clings to austerity plan
Financial markets face a tense start to the week, as they wait to see whether Greece’s sparring politicians can work together in a national unity government and whether Italy can reassure nervous investors that it will push ahead with fresh austerity measures.
Berlusconi sailing in stormy waters
Pressure is mounting as Silvio Berlusconi is yet to reveal any tangible details of his structural reforms beyond vague promises of asset sell-offs, pension reform and tax breaks to boost employment, writes Jo McKenna, a Rome-based freelance journalist.
Crikey Says: Silvio Berlusconi is up to his ears in it
Violent storms sweeping Italy are the least of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s problems.
Guy Rundle: Even Izzy Dye can run Greece as long as there’s a vote
Greece, the eurozone, the EU and the G20 were in crisis yesterday, as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou lost the support of his deputy PM, five members of his cabinet, and several Pasok MPs, leaving the entire country, and the continent, in a state of disarray.
Political snippets: A campaigning paper
The Sydney Daily Telegraph is clearly on the campaign trail.
Ferrari chief turns up the heat on Berlusconi
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, chairman of the luxury sports car maker, Ferrari, has openly called for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign, writes Jo McKenna, a freelance journalist in Rome.
Eurozone’s Halloween treat: a confection of silver linings and hot air
The markets have seized on the latest European deal with relief. But it’s another confection, and a humiliating one at that, write Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.
Political snippets: Gillard’s looking prime ministerial
If her approval ratings do not improve because of it then Labor really will have reason to despair.
