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.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion