Italy's economic ministry post was filled Friday in a bid by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to end a crisis that blew up this month when a key ally resigned and he controversially took personal command of the key portfolio.
The new head of the super-ministry for economy and finance is Domenico Siniscalco, hitherto head of the Treasury and a second-in-command in the economy ministry.
Yielding to pressure from inside his four-party coalition, Berlusconi announced Friday: "My interim period in the economy and finance ministry ends today and I am going to propose the nomination of a new minister to the head of state."
The appointment was confirmed by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Siniscalco, born in 1954, is a Turin economics professor who has been serving as director-general at the Treasury in Rome, a key post that is the equivalent of No. 2 in the economy ministry, whose incumbent focuses on privatization policy.
Berlusconi had been under pressure from coalition partners to find someone for the post after he took over the portfolio personally following the resignation of Giulio Tremonti nearly two weeks ago.
The appointment Friday was aimed at ending a government crisis after Tremonti's departure under pressure from Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, leader of the National Alliance, another coalition member.
Tremonti was close to both Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi, flamboyant head of the Northern League, also a coalition partner.
But Bossi, currently hospitalized, was not able to ride to Tremonti's rescue in the crisis two weeks ago.
Fini expressed satisfaction Friday at Berlusconi's decision and said the new minister would be judged according to the way he observed responsiblity in government in decision-making.
Berlusconi had also come under pressure from his Christian Democrat coalition partners to relinquish the economy post, which they said concentrated too much power in his hands.
But the populist Northern League refused to endorse the new appointment Friday.
"The League refuses to agree to any replacement or any new government appointment," it said.
"Unless Tremonti returns it will not participate in any session devoted to this end," party deputy chief Roberto Calderoli said.
Siniscalco has a degree in law from Turin and a doctorate in economics from Cambridge.
Tremonti was forced out on July 3 at the demand of Fini, who had raised the stakes in the simmering government crisis by demanding a change in economic policy, threatening to quit.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
RSS