The Italian president began talks with party leaders yesterday on a future government, a day after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned.
Berlusconi, his popularity sagging amid concerns about the economy and opposition to Italy's involvement in Iraq, stepped down on Wednesday, but said he was determined to regain the country's confidence with a new Cabinet.
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has two options -- to dissolve parliament and call early elections, or to designate a premier to assemble a new government. He is widely expected to tap Berlusconi to form a new Cabinet to serve until the end of the legislature in the middle of next year.
Resigning and then immediately shuffling the government is an old trick of Italy's complicated political system, and has been used by premiers to strengthen faltering coalitions.
Berlusconi, who was elected in 2001 and had been leading Italy's longest-serving postwar government, had resisted the move, sensing it would undermine his image as a new-style politician. On Wednesday, he suggested he would have preferred to stay.
"One can't always get what one wants," he said, acknowledging the end of his ambition to head Italy's first postwar government to serve an entire five-year term.
But the resignation, which he submitted to the president, is expected to enable Berlusconi to end weeks of infighting within his conservative coalition. His allies had demanded that he step down and revamp the Cabinet following an embarrassing defeat in April 3-4 regional elections.
Berlusconi is staying on as caretaker, and the Apcom news agency quoted him as saying that he expects the crisis to be over by the end of the week. He reportedly said he would not change many ministers, but did not give details.
The resignation was welcomed by his allies, who had demanded it after the electoral defeat.
"His speech was excellent," said Gianfranco Fini, who serves as deputy premier and foreign minister.
In Wednesday's address to the Senate, Berlusconi appeared to appease some requests from his allies when he said the new platform would focus on aiding Italy's underdeveloped south and financially pressed families.
The economy is high on the list of worries. Italy's economy grew by 1.2 percent last year compared with an average 2 percent in the 12-nation euro zone, raising pressure on the government to contain its ballooning deficit under EU rules.
The center-left opposition has been pressing for early elections, emboldened by polls suggesting they could win. In tune with most Italians, the opposition was against Berlusconi's decision to send 3,000 troops to Iraq.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
RSS