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Monti looks on following a talk with Napolitano at the Quirinale palace in Rome November 13, 2011.
Italy’s president appointed former European Commissioner Mario Monti yesterday to head a new government charged with implementing urgent reforms to end a crisis that has endangered the whole euro zone.
After a frenetic weekend during which parliament passed the reforms and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stepped down to the jeers of hostile crowds, President Giorgio Napolitano asked Monti to form a government, expected to be composed largely of technocrats.
The respected economist, made a life Senator last week, said he would work urgently to form a government and is likely to name around 12 ministers within days.
“I intend to fulfil this task with a great sense of responsibility in the service of our country. In a moment of particular difficulty for Italy, in a turbulent situation for Europe and the world, the country needs to meet the challenge,” Monti said after his nomination.
“We owe it to our children to offer them a future with dignity and hope,” he added.
Silvio Berlusconi’s closest coalition ally Umberto Bossi told him to resign today in what could be a mortal blow to the Italian prime minister.
Bossi, head of the devolutionist Northern League, said the 75-year-old media magnate should be replaced by Angelino Alfano, secretary of the premier’s PDL party.
“We asked the prime minister to stand down,” Bossi told reporters outside parliament.
Berlusconi (picture) has until now remained defiant ahead of a key parliamentary vote today afternoon, refusing calls from all sides to step down, but Bossi’s call could tip the balance against him.
The League, together with many members of the PDL, are believed to want Berlusconi to make way for a new centre-right government capable of facing a huge economic crisis and restoring the confidence of markets without handing power to a transitional administration.
Earlier, in another sign of Berlusconi’s sliding grip on power, five PDL rebels said they would not take part in the vote on public financing this afternoon (starting at 1430 GMT), putting his majority in serious danger.
However, the centre-left opposition also said it would not vote to expose the weakness of Berlusconi’s support while allowing the passage of a vital measure for state financing.
This means the measure will likely pass but Berlusconi could be exposed to a humiliatingly low vote that would ratchet up the pressure to topple him.
Red lights are flashing on bond markets about Italy’s uncertainty with the interest rate Rome is forced to pay on government bonds reaching critical levels.
Yields on Italy’s 10-year benchmark bonds rose to 6.74 per cent today before dropping back. Analysts said Italy was reaching the point where Portugal, Greece and Ireland were forced to seek a bailout.
Berlusconi defiant
But Berlusconi, who has dominated Italian politics for 17 years, has refused appeals from all sides to step down despite stark signs that he has lost the confidence of markets.
“I’m not leaving,” was the headline in the fanatically pro-Berlusconi newspaper Il Giornale, owned by his brother.
Speaking before the latest defections, Berlusconi said he had won back enough party rebels to win the vote and he would then table roll-call confidence motions on sweeping economic reforms promised to fellow European leaders.
“I want to look those who want to betray me in the face,” he said.
If Berlusconi’s support falls below around 310 votes in the 630-seat lower house, he will face massive pressure to go. Current calculations seem to put him well below that number.
The opposition says it will likely then table a no-confidence motion which could be held this week.
Guido Crosetto, a government undersecretary, told a morning talk show that he thought the government would win today’s vote but that he was pessimistic about how long it could last after that.
Italy has the third biggest economy in the euro zone and its debt worries are a huge threat in the wider crisis facing the continent’s single currency.
However, even if Berlusconi goes, there is no guarantee that reforms to cut Italy’s massive debt and boost growth will be quickly implemented. There is no agreement among the political parties on either a national unity or technocrat government to get Italy out of the mess.
Berlusconi says the only alternative to the present government are elections early next year ― which would extend the period of drift, although some analysts say calling of polls would at least establish a point of certainty, as it did in fellow euro zone peripheral economy Spain.
The prime minister has for days been working the phones and sending out emissaries to trying to win back the support of enough defectors to avoid humiliating defeat in the vote today, which he has already lost once.
If he is defeated again, Berlusconi could either resign immediately ― thought unlikely ― or be ordered by President Giorgio Napolitano to call a confidence vote.
Berlusconi and his closest allies say appointment of a technocrat government ― the option favoured by markets ― would be an undemocratic “coup” that ignored the 2008 election result that brought the centre-right to power.
Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives at the Justice Palace in Milan April 11, 2011. A defiant Berlusconi arrived in court on Monday to face the latest in a series of trials over the coming weeks on charges ranging from tax fraud to paying for sex with a minor.
A defiant Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived in court today to face the latest in a series of trials over the coming weeks on charges ranging from tax fraud to paying for sex with a minor.
“I will not be convicted,” Berlusconi told reporters confidently as he entered the courthouse, with a crowd of supporters cheering him on.
He said magistrates, whom he has accused of being politically biased leftists, had hurled “an incredible amount of mud” at him “and the whole country”.
His appearance at the tax fraud trial contrasted with his decision to stay away from the opening of a more embarrassing case last week over his relations with an under-age prostitute, which his lawyers are trying to have quashed.
He called the prostitution charges against him “groundless.”
Today’s trial centres on charges that Berlusconi’s Mediaset broadcasting empire bought TV and film rights at inflated prices through offshore front companies, leaving the difference to be skimmed off to avoid tax and create secret slush funds.
Both Mediaset and Berlusconi deny the charges. Judges were expected to question some defence witnesses at today’s hearing.
The billionaire centre-right prime minister has dismissed opposition calls to resign and, after overcoming a damaging party split last year, appears to have the numbers in parliament to serve out his term until 2013.
The Mediaset trial is one of a series of three connected trials, all linked to the sale of television and film rights dating back to the 1990s.
It is not related to the more sensational “Rubygate” case in which the prime minister is accused of paying for sex with a teenage nightclub dancer when she was under the age of 18 and thus too young under Italian law to be paid as a prostitute.
As he entered the courthouse today, Berlusconi said he was only trying to help the girl, Karima El Mahroug, “because she told me a story that moved me” and he had wanted to help her find a job.
Berlusconi, who has faced at least a dozen trials over the years, denies all charges against him and says he has been victimised by leftist magistrates who are using the legal system to bring him down.
His government has been pushing through legislation to curb the powers of the magistrates, prompting critics to accuse him of trying to pass specially tailored laws that would allow him to escape trial altogether.
The trials were effectively suspended by a measure passed by his government which allowed him to claim that his official duties meant he did not have enough time to prepare his defence and could therefore claim immunity from trial while in office.
The constitutional court ruled against the measure in January, prompting magistrates to re-open the fraud trials and bring the prostitution case to court
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is likely to dig in his heels after being ordered to stand trial but ultimately he will not be able to stem the tide heading toward early elections, commentators said today.
“Objectively speaking, Berlusconi is worn down and gasping for breath,” wrote Massimo Franco, a leading political commentator for the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
In perhaps the hardest blow in a string of judicial problems, a judge ordered Berlusconi (picture) to stand trial in April on charges of paying an underage girl for sex and abuse of office for intervening with police to get her freed from custody.
He has so far not commented on the indictment but his lieutenants have blasted the trial order as what they call another calculated move by leftist magistrates to destroy his political career.
But the momentum against him seems to be building. The trial date was set two days after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated throughout the country demanding his immediate resignation.
“Berlusconi is now in a defensive position and (the court order) breathes electoral hope into an opposition that smells a precious opportunity to beat him,” Franco said.
Another influential commentator, Stefano Folli of the economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said: “It’s obvious that the legislature is over and parliament is heading towards a paralysis.”
The timing of elections before the next scheduled national vote in 2013 depends how long Berlusconi’s increasingly fragile coalition can stick together, commentators said.
The sex scandal has riveted Italy and, commentators say, caused untold damage to the country’s image abroad.
Much will depend on the position of the Northern League and its mercurial leader Umberto Bossi.
Bossi, speaking after centre-right leaders held crisis talks with Berlusconi yesterday night, was quoted as telling the prime minister that “the moment is difficult but I am standing by you”.
Commentators say Bossi is biding his time until federalists reforms are in place to placate his northern constituents and then will pull the plug on the coalition, as he did in 1994 when he provoked the collapse of Berlusconi’s first government.
“EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF”
“Let’s get federalism passed and then it’s every man for himself,” the La Republica newspaper quoted Bossi as telling his lieutenants before Tuesday night’s meeting.
Berlusconi’s legal problems have added a complicating factor to a political situation already tangled by a split in the People of Freedom coalition last year, which left Berlusconi barely clinging to power.
The government survived a no-confidence motion in parliament in December by a small margin. Since then, Berlusconi has gradually built up support by winning over deputies from smaller centrist parties and splinter formations.
Italian media have been dominated for weeks by the alleged prostitution affair, which turns on the case of a teenaged Moroccan nightclub dancer named Karima el Mahroug, whose stage name Ruby has become a household term in Italy.
Prosecutors say they have ample evidence that Berlusconi paid el Mahroug for sex when she was under 18 — an offence in Italy — and also telephoned a police station to pressure officers to release her after she was held on theft allegations.
She denies having sex with Berlusconi but admits receiving at least €7,000 euros (RM29,000) after attending a party at the premier’s luxurious private residence at Arcore near Milan.
Berlusconi has denied doing anything illegal in the case and says he has been targeted by politically motivated judges backed by the left who are determined to bring him down.
He says he has never paid for sex and says that when he telephoned the Milan police station it was because he believed el Mahroug to be the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and he wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.
Protesters gather in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo to demonstrate against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on February 13, 2011
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today he had no intention of stepping down and dismissed a weekend demonstration by thousands of women across Italy over his involvement in a sex scandal.
Hundreds of thousands of women took part in rallies yesterday to defend their dignity and protest over the underage prostitution scandal that has rocked the 74 year-old prime minister’s centre-right government.
The billionaire media entrepreneur told his Canale 5 network the protests were the work of his political opponents and denied that he disrespects women.
“I saw the usual factional forces mobilised against me by a certain section of the left which uses any pretext to beat an adversary whom they can’t manage to beat at the polls,” he told a morning programme.
“All women who have had the opportunity to get to know me, know how much I respect them. I have always behaved and I always behave with great care and great respect, both in my companies and in my government.”
“I have always tried to act in such a way that every woman feels special,” he said.
Sunday’s protests included several leading figures from the opposition centre-left and many conservative middle-aged women, a group which has traditionally supported him.
Berlusconi said the government would not resign over the affair, potentially opening the way for new elections.
“There is a lot of confusion but I have very clear ideas. The interest of the country is to have a stable government which carries on with its programme with determination,” he said.
Milan prosecutors have requested that Berlusconi face trial over accusations that he paid for sex with a girl below the age of 18 — an offence in Italy — and that he improperly pressured police to release her from custody over theft allegations.
A decision on whether to accept the request is expected early this week.
Using material obtained from investigators’ wiretaps, newspapers have splashed lurid accounts of “bunga bunga” sex parties involving dozens of young women at Berlusconi’s private villa near Milan.
Berlusconi has never hidden his fondness for the company of young women but denies doing anything illegal and his lawyers have produced witness statements saying that the events at his villa were no more than convivial dinner parties.
“The Milan prosecutors’ office and the media in contrast has trampled on the dignity of my guests, exposing them to public scorn without any reason or regard for them and trampling on the truth,” Berlusconi said.
Karima El Mahroug appearing as a guest on the Italian television show “Kalispera” near Milan January 19, 2011.
One of Italy’s most senior woman politicians has condemned Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a “sultan” who degrades women, and predicted many of those who voted for him will abandon him in the next election.
Rosy Bindi, president of the opposition Democratic Party and deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, said in an interview that sex scandals were likely to cost Berlusconi power.
“Italian women are paying the highest price for this scandal, with an image being spread of women whose value is reduced to their bodies and who become tradeable goods at the disposal of the sultan, the emperor,” she told Reuters.
“Berlusconi has based an important part of his electoral success on women . . . but undoubtedly his approval ratings are now falling . . . women will represent a key element in putting an end to Berlusconi’s honeymoon in our country,” she said in her office in the lower house yesterday evening.
Italy’s next elections are not scheduled until 2013 but most commentators say either Berlusconi’s sex scandals or the fracturing of the centre right will lead to the collapse of his government and early national polls, perhaps this year.
Milan prosecutors have alleged that Berlusconi paid for sex with prostitutes who attended parties at his villa, including a teenaged nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, who goes by the stage name of “Ruby the Heart-Stealer”.
The billionaire media mogul denies any wrongdoing and says he has never paid for sex. He says politically motivated leftist magistrates are bent on destroying him and he has refused to face questioning.
Berlusconi has survived previous scandals about his private life. Middle-aged and elderly women have been key sources of electoral support for the prime minister.
But Bindi, who has called for Berlusconi to resign, said the most recent scandal would likely be seen as a step too far.
“In the last weeks there has been a jump to a new level: before it was our head of government who was ridiculed, but now we are all at risk of being ridiculed,” she said.
Newspapers have run transcripts of phone taps by magistrates that paint a picture of wild parties attended by Berlusconi, other older men and young starlets and models who received money and favours such as free rent.
Berlusconi has frequently joked about Bindi, once calling the bespectacled, grey-haired 59-year-old “more beautiful than intelligent”.
That stirred a backlash from thousands of Italian women, and her quick response — “I’m not a woman at your disposal” — became a rallying cry printed on T-shirts and placards.
Bindi said then there was a “new feminism” taking root in Italy, where scantily clad women are a common sight on TV, especially on channels owned by Berlusconi.
“When Berlusconi starts to offend me or others, I rely on my inner strength, and in that case I told him I’m not at his disposal like a woman he can buy,” she told Reuters.
Silvio Berlusconi after the attack; a You Tube video has suggested the attack was faked.Suffered from cut lips,2 broken lip.
Massimo Tartaglia (C) was arrested for attacking the Italian Prime Minister with a marble and metal statue
A You Tube video which suggests the attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was faked has become an overnight sensation.
Berlusconi, 73, was hit in the face with a souvenir marble and metal replica of Milan's famous Gothic cathedral following a political rally and suffered a fractured nose and two broken teeth.
TV footage of the politician showing him bleeding profusely from cuts to his lips and gums went around the world in a matter of seconds and were seen by millions.
However, today a video posted on You Tube suggesting the attack in Milan was faked had received almost 500,000 hits in just a matter of hours.
Called 'Was the attack on Berlusconi a montage?' the video lasts eight minutes and is on a par with other past conspiracy theories such as the attack on the Twin Towers being a CIA created plot.
The video's author is unidentified but using footage and still photographs it raises questions regarding several key moments in the aftermath of last Sunday's attack in Milan.
It asks why the blood on Berlusconi's face appears to be 'thick and already' set and also asks why if as the hospital later said he had lost 'half a litre of blood' is his suit and shirt not drenched.
Also highlighted in a security guard who is seen handing Berlusconi something in his car and the video suggests that it is a 'aerosol spray containing fake blood.'
The video then goes on to ask viewers to 'switch off the TV and use your brains' and adds that the attack by graphic designer Massimo Tartaglia, 42, was nothing more than a 'self styled plot.'
Following the attack Berlusconi was taken to hospital where e he was kept in for four days before being discharged and told by doctors to 'take complete rest for the next fifteen days.'
Political commentators immediately said that the former cruise ship crooner would win sympathy from Italians for the attack and yesterday one poll showed Berlusconi having a 66 per cent popularity rating - a jump of 20 per cent in just week.
Supporters from his People of Freedom party dismissed the conspiracy theory video - which was being sent on via Facebook and email around the world - with Danielle Capezzone saying it was 'absurd.'
He added: 'I have seen this video and segments of others and I think what we are dealing here is micro terrorism.
'I can see in these people the same ideology as people who use violence - you just have to see the footage to see this attack was very real.
'These people are deny the evidence and trying to create something out of nothing.
'I can't believe people are questioning the attack just because they think Berlusconi wasn't bleeding properly or enough.'
Help: Bodyguards surround the prime minister.The moment Mr Berlusconi is struck in the face by a statuette.A scuffle breaks out immediately after Berlusconi is attacked
Assault: Silvio Berlusconi appeared shaken as he was rushed to hospital
Bloodied: Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in his vehicle after being attacked at the rally in Milan
Seized: Massimo Tartaglia, centre, was quickly arrested after the attack.Slapped or hurled a statue at Italy PM.
Mr Berlusconi was signing autographs when he was attacked with a gargoyled statue.
News reports say Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spent an untroubled night at the hospital after being hit in the face with a statuette hurled by a man at a rally in Milan.
The ANSA news agency said Berlusconi asked to see newspapers upon waking up Monday at the San Raffaele hospital. The hospital's spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The hospital is expected to issue a medical update at midday.
Berlusconi was hit Sunday as he was signing autographs at the rally. The 73-year-old leader was rushed to hospital with blood under his nose, on his mouth and under one eye. He suffered a fractured nose, two broken teeth and a lip injury, according to hospital spokesman Paolo Klun.
The attacker has been arrested.
With a split lip, a broken nose and his face covered in blood, this was Silvio Berlusconi after he was punched to the ground by an attacker yesterday.
The 73-year-old Italian prime minister also lost two teeth in the assault as he signed autographs at the end of a stormy political rally in Milan.
His personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said the premier would be kept in hospital for observation for up to 48 hours, adding his injuries would take at least 15 days to heal.
Berlusconi, a popular but divisive figure, said 'I'm fine, I'm fine' as he arrived at the hospital, where he spent an untroubled night.
He reportedly asked to see newspapers upon waking up, no doubt wanting to read coverage of the assault on the front pages.
Berlusconi was attacked when a man stepped from the crowd, dodging bodyguards, before smashing the politician in the face - apparently while clutching a model of the city's Duomo cathedral in his clenched fist.
The prime minister told an Italian TV presenter visiting him in hospital that he considered it ‘miraculous’ not to have lost an eye in the attack.
‘This is truly a bad day for Italy, and it's the duty of all the political forces to ensure that Italy does not go back to the years of violence,’ Gianfranco Fini, Berlusconi's top conservative ally, said.
The incident triggered an outpouring of solidarity for Berlusconi from allies and critics, just as the prime minister seeks to regain political momentum after a bruising year battling mounting legal troubles and sex scandals.
Allies blamed the assault on an atmosphere of hatred swirling around the billionaire businessman.
‘What they've done to Berlusconi is an act of terrorism,’ Umberto Bossi, head of the far-right Northern League and a close Berlusconi ally, said.
‘An oppressive climate has been felt for some time and what's happened today is a worrying sign.’
The attacker, named last night as Massimo Tartaglia, was arrested by police and taken away. Just hours after the attack, Facebook groups had sprung up hailing or attacking Tartaglia, including one fan site with more than 32,000 fans that labelled him a man with "lots of courage".
TV showed a stunned Mr Berlusconi with blood around his mouth as he was lifted to his feet by aides.
He was bundled into his official car but immediately got out, apparently in an effort to show he was not badly injured. After looking out into the crowd, the aides pulled him back into the vehicle.
As police officers swamped the rally, Mr Berlusconi was driven to a nearby hospital where he was given a CAT scan.
Doctors said that as he was being treated on a stretcher, he had told them: 'I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry about me.'
It was reported that the attacker was wielding a miniature statue of Milan's Duomo, the city's gargoyled cathedral and symbol.
There was no immediate suggestion of a motive for the attack. Police sources said that 42-year-old Tartaglia, from Milan, was not known as a political activist and had no criminal convictions apart from minor driving offences.
They added, however, that he had been 'receiving medical attention for mental problems' for ten years.
Before the attack, Mr Berlusconi had delivered a fiery speech to supporters of his People of Freedom party in the square in front of the cathedral. Scores of opponents had also gathered to try to drown out his speech.
Defence minister Ignazio La Russa who witnessed the attack said: 'I saw blood coming from the premier's nose and mouth. He was then pushed into the car by his bodyguards and driven away.
'He was actually trying to step on the edge of the door so that he could stand and wave to the crowds but his bodyguards would not let him do it, they pushed him inside.
'The attacker was held immediately by the police and it's a good job he was because he risked being lynched by the crowd. There would have been just pieces of him left.'
The attack came after a speech that had been billed as politically significant but revealed no big policy shift.
Berlusconi launched a familiar tirade against the left and rattled off a list of government achievements, in a characteristically feisty performance aimed at shoring up his standing and ratings.
It is the second time that Mr Berlusconi has been attacked in public. In 2004 he was hit over the head with a camera tripod while strolling in Rome.
Last night's incident came despite reports in November security had been tightened-around him following fears that he was being targeted by Left-wing terrorists.
Mr Berlusconi has been at the centre of controversy for much of the year. In April it emerged that he had attended the 18th birthday party of a lingerie model, giving her a £5,400 gold and diamond necklace.
It prompted his long-suffering wife Veronica Lario, 53, to announce she was divorcing him because she could no longer be with a man who ' associated with minors and was ill'.
In June it emerged that escort girls had been among women invited to parties at his official residences. One claimed to have slept with him.
He has also been at the centre of a political storm after an immunity law his government introduced was overturned, meaning he could be put on trail for corruption.
In recent weeks there have been claims he was in the Mafia, allegations he has dismissed as lies.
An opinion poll published on Saturday indicated his popularity had fallen four percentage points to just over 50 percent as Italians fretted that his legal entanglements could distract him from government duties.
