Italy’s president raced to appoint an emergency government yesterday to face a crisis endangering the whole eurozone and replace Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned as Italian prime minister on Saturday to the humiliating jeers of thousands of protesters.
Just a few hours after central Rome echoed with street parties celebrating Berlusconi’s departure, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano began a rapid round of meetings with political parties at his hilltop palace.
The consultations, much faster than is normal, were due to wind up late yesterday afternoon, when Napolitano was expected to ask former European commissioner Mario Monti to form a government largely of technocrats in time for the opening of markets today.
Monti will push through reforms agreed by Berlusconi with eurozone leaders to cut Italy’s massive debt and revive a chronically stagnant economy.
Italy’s political turmoil, centered around the flamboyant and scandal-plagued figure of Berlusconi, has brought the eurozone’s third-largest economy to the brink of disaster and all eyes will be on the market reaction today.
Yesterday’s newspapers were filled with Berlusconi’s departure and spoke of the irony of how a media magnate famed for his skills of communicating with the public was seen off by jeering crowds.
Turin’s La Stampa called it “a sad exit from the stage,” adding that he was forced to leave the presidential palace secretly via a side exit on Saturday night after handing in his resignation because a crowd shouting insults, including “clown, clown,” made it dangerous for him to exit by the front gate.
Cheers erupted when they heard he had resigned. People sang, danced, broke open bottles of sparkling wine and an impromptu orchestra near the palace played the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. There were also celebrations in Milan and the central city of Bologna.
Some protesters threw coins at Berlusconi’s car in a gesture reminiscent of the departure into exile of disgraced former Italian Socialist prime minister Bettino Craxi in 1993, often seen as his political mentor.
Berlusconi, one of Italy’s richest men, has dominated the country since bursting onto the political scene the following year, filling the vacuum on the right created by a massive corruption scandal that swept away the old order.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)