200 injured at rally against Italian high-speed rail link

July 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

CHIOMONTE (Italy): Around two hundred people, mainly police officers, were injured as officers clashed with masked protesters at a rally against a high-speed rail link in northern Italy, police said.

Clashes between protesters and police left at least 188 officers and about a dozen demonstrators hurt, said officials, after a small group stormed a tunnel which was part of the work site at Chiomonte, west of Turin.

Scuffles between protesters and a heavy police presence continued throughout the day yesterday, with a steady exchange of tear gas, stones and molotov cocktails.

Police arrested at least five people and Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano condemned the violence.

Police blamed the trouble on hundreds of masked leftist “black block” extremists from Italy and neighbouring countries.

Protest organisers said tens of thousands of demonstrators had gathered peacefully from surrounding regions to stop the construction of the planned tunnel in the Susa valley.

But a small band broke away from the main group of protestors to enter the gated work site guarded by hundreds of police, who put the number of demonstrators at about 6,000.

The project, agreed by Italy and France in 2001, would slice three hours off the current seven-hour train journey between Paris and Milan. But the development has provoked fierce opposition, not least among 23 local mayors.

In a statement, President Napolitano condemned what he said was the work of groups “trained in illegal violence.”

He was joined by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and figures across the political spectrum.

Police were out in force yesterday as authorities had expected more trouble from radical groups within the protest movement after similar clashes last week.

Twenty-five policemen and four protestors were slightly injured on June 27 when a demonstration at the same spot turned violent and police responded with tear gas.

Before yesterday’s events, the leader of the “No Tav” (No to the high-speed train) movement, Alberto Perino, said demonstrators would have “bare hands and clean hands, against those whose hands are neither bare nor clean”.

Work on the main 58-kilometre tunnel, of which 12 kilometres are in Italy, is scheduled to begin in 2013 and due to go into service around 2023.

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Fini ally warns Berlusconi as confidence votes loom

July 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Italy’s Gianfranco Fini, the increasingly dissenting co-founder of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party, has enough support to bring the government down, a Fini ally warned Saturday.

Fini has publicly challenged Berlusconi’s policies and leadership style in recent months, fuelling speculation he might lead a faction against the embattled premier.

Comments published Saturday by Fini associate Italo Bocchino will add pressure on Berlusconi, who faces two confidence votes in parliament — the first is expected on July 15 — on an unpopular 25-billion euros austerity budget.

Berlusconi has said that he would resign, as required by the constitution, if he lost the votes.

Asked by independent news outlet CNR Media how many followers could Fini count on, Bocchino said in a video interview: “At least one more than the number needed to keep the ruling coalition afloat.”

The Italian media were quick to pick up on signs of a widening rift between Fini and Berlusconi. Bocchino later said his words, which were posted on CNR Media website (www.cnrmedia.com), were misinterpreted.

He said in a statement Fini’s backers were “decisive” to keep the government going and would vote with the ruling coalition “until the last day of the legislature.”

Ever since Fini and Berlusconi publicly clashed at a party congress in April, there has been much speculation about whether dissenters within Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party had the numbers to deprive him of his parliamentary majority.

Il Giornale newspaper, which is owned by the Berlusconi family, calculated this week that without Fini and his allies, the government could count on 316 votes in the lower house of parliament — a majority of just one vote.

In the Senate, Il Giornale said that the center right without Fini and his allies had a five-vote majority at 162, but that did not include seven life senators, all of whom are former heads of state or otherwise distinguished public figures.

Fini, who is speaker of the lower house, and Berlusconi have exchanged regular barbs through the media, fuelling speculation that their enmity could destroy the coalition and force the appointment of a new government or snap elections.

The rivalry has leaked into the battle Berlusconi faces to push through parliament the austerity package designed to shore up Italy’s public finances.

The package, including spending freezes and pay cuts in the public sector, faces opposition from groups ranging from the unions to cash-strapped regional governments, with critics saying it bleeds workers and spares the rich.

Even diplomats have called a strike against the measures.

Berlusconi’s approval rating fell nine points to 41 percent over the past six weeks, according to a survey in Corriere della Sera daily this week, and his government appears more vulnerable than it has been since it took office in May 2008.

Two ministers have resigned in as many months over corruption accusations, while protests have been growing over a draft bill that would limit the use of wiretaps by police and punish newspapers that print transcript leaks.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

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Italian minister resigns in blow to Berlusconi

July 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 5 (Reuters) – A former executive in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s media empire who was unexpectedly appointed as a government minister last month resigned in the midst of an embezzlement trial on Monday.

The sudden departure of Aldo Brancher, named as “minister for federalism” in June, deals a fresh blow to Berlusconi whose centre-right government is facing crippling internal divisions that could put its future at risk.

“I am announcing my irrevocable decision to resign as government minister,” Brancher told a Milan court.

Brancher’s appointment as minister with responsibility for overseeing moves to give Italy’s regions more autonomy in matters including tax, education and health services had been heavily criticised by the opposition.

He caused further outrage when he used his newly acquired status as minister to claim immunity from his embezzlement trial and was forced to retreat and drop the claim only days later. (Reporting by Silvia Molteni; Writing by James Mackenzie)

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Italy union on attack over austerity cuts

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Italy’s 24 billion euro ($30 billion) austerity plan threatens to further erode government popularity and could lead to a national strike by a big union which contends it hurts the weak and spares the rich.

The government late on Tuesday approved slashing funds to local bodies and freezing salaries for state workers, joining European peers like Spain and Portugal with spending cuts aimed at staving off contagion from the Greek crisis.

In a sign that a public backlash feared by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi could be brewing, Italy’s largest union joined smaller labour groups and the centre-left opposition in attacking the measures.

“If I’m a citizen who earns a million euros a year thanks to capital gains, I don’t shell out a single euro in the set of sacrifices,” Guglielmo Epifani, head of the CGIL union that has about 5 million members, told La Stampa daily.

“There’s no need for big words — I expected more equitable austerity measures. It doesn’t seem to me that’s the case.”

He said the union will decide on a national strike after evaluating the package, which Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to present later on Wednesday.

Strikes are common in Italy, but a national strike would sharply increase the pressure on Berlusconi, who so far has shrugged off the crisis as a figment of the left’s imagination.

Italy’s other major unions, CISL and UIL, offered more muted criticism of the plan and called for more cuts to perks enjoyed by politicians to save an “economy in war”.

Berlusconi — whose popularity has flagged over a corruption scandal — has kept an unusually low profile in recent days, saying almost nothing about the budget cuts and leaving the talking to his top aides.

Italian media have reported he is unhappy with the package drawn up by Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti, fearing the cuts are too severe and will further hit sliding approval ratings.

ENCOURAGING, BUT ENOUGH?

But the plan drew praise from other quarters, including European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, who called it “very significant”.

The Moody’s ratings agency said the package should reassure markets on Italy’s commitment to cutting deficit levels, while S&P said it should put public finances on a more sustainable footing and preserve its current ratings.

The yield spread on Italian 10-year bonds compared with the German benchmark equivalent was broadly stable on Wednesday at around 137 basis points after rises in recent days.

Analysts said the plan was an encouraging first step but probably not enough in the long run.

“We feel this should be a forerunner of a prolonged period of better fiscal management,” said Raj Badiani, of IHS Global Insight. “Italy needs to break its protracted cycle of modest growth and high debt, otherwise it will remain vulnerable to future external shocks.”

Others fretted the budget would stifle growth. With consumer morale down to its lowest level in a year, the chief of statistics agency Istat, Enrico Giovannini, warned it could undermine the chances of a recovery in consumer spending.

The cuts, amounting to about 1.6 percent of Italian GDP, are aimed at pushing the deficit below the EU’s 3 percent ceiling.

Though Italy kept its budget deficit down to 5.3 percent of GDP last year — well below the EU average — the budget aims to slash it to 2.7 percent by 2012.

In a bid to give the appearance that sacrifices will be spread evenly, the measures include pay cuts for ministers, parliamentarians and senior state-sector managers.

The plan also is expected to press regional and local governments to contribute some 13 billion euros of spending cuts in 2011-2012, almost inevitably affecting schools and hospitals. Busy arteries such as Rome’s ring road may become toll roads.

(Writing by Deepa Babington, additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Valentina Za, Giselda Vagnoni and Philip Pullella, editing by Michael Roddy)

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FACTBOX – Austerity measures around eurozone

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

REUTERS – Italy joined Europe’s austerity club late on Tuesday as its cabinet approved 24 billion euros of deficit-reducing cuts that could hit the popularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Here are some details on austerity measures around the eurozone:

* ITALY:

– A late night cabinet meeting confirmed the overall 24 billion-euro deficit cut and measures such as the delay in retirement, the state salary freeze and cuts to the pay of high public sector earners.

– Regional and local governments will be pressed to contribute some 13 billion euros of spending cuts in 2011-2012, sources said, almost inevitably affecting schools and hospitals. Busy arteries such as Rome’s ring road may become toll roads.

– Though Italy kept its budget deficit down to 5.3 percent of GDP last year — well below the EU average — the budget aims to slash it to 2.7 percent by 2012.

* PORTUGAL:

– Prime Minister Jose Socrates and opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho drew up steps to slash the budget deficit, including 5 percent pay cuts for senior public sector staff and politicians, and increases in VAT sales tax, income tax and profits tax ranging from one to 2.5 percent.

– The cabinet approved the programme on May 20. The government said it would cut the deficit to 7.3 percent of GDP in 2010 and 4.6 percent in 2011. In 2009 it hit 9.4 percent, prompting a sell-off of Portuguese assets by investors.

* FRANCE:

– French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France will look to restore its public finances as the economic recovery takes root.

– In an effort to keep a lid on the budget deficit, France has said it will freeze all spending, bar pensions and interest payments, between 2011-2013 and cut state operating costs by 10 percent over the same period. Sarkozy has said this does not amount to an austerity plan.

* GREECE:

– Greece has approved a pension reform bill, after agreeing with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund a fresh set of austerity measures aimed at pulling the country out of a severe debt crisis that has shaken the euro zone.

– Under the EU-IMF deal, Greece plans to narrow its budget shortfall from 13.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 to 8.1 percent this year, 7.6 percent in 2011 and 2.6 percent in 2014.

– Austerity measures include a public sector pay freeze until 2014. Christmas, Easter and summer holiday bonuses, also known as 13th and 14th salaries, are abolished for civil servants earning above 3,000 euros a month and are capped at 1,000 euros for those earning less.

– Public sector allowances are cut by an additional 8 percent. These allowances, which account for a significant part of civil servants’ overall income, were cut by 12 percent under a round of austerity measures announced in March.

* TAX HIKES:

– The main VAT rate is increased by 2 percentage points to 23 percent. It had been raised to 21 percent from 19 percent in March.

– Excise taxes on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol are increased by a further 10 percent.

– The government expects to generate additional revenues through a one-off tax on highly profitable companies, as well as new gambling and gaming licences and more property taxes.

* PENSIONS:

– The government has said it will freeze pensions in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

– According to the pension bill, expected to be voted by parliament in June, the statutory retirement age for women will be raised by 5 years to 65 to match the retirement age for men.

* IRELAND:

* DEFICIT:

– The government’s budget for 2010 presented in December projected a deficit of 11.6 percent of gross domestic product. The median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters is for Ireland’s budget deficit to come in at 11.5 percent.

* AUSTERITY:

– Fiscal reform so far: 3 austerity budgets presented in little over a year, in Oct. 2008, April 2009 and Dec. 2010. With the first two budgets focused on tax rises, December’s budget for 2010 drew most praise as it delivered spending cuts of 4 billion euros, including a cut in public sector pay.

– Fresh savings worth 3 billion euros are planned for each of 2011 and 2012.

* SPAIN:

– Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced on May 12 fresh spending cuts totalling 15 billion euros in 2010 and 2011. Civil service salaries will be cut by 5 percent in 2010 and frozen in 2011, while more than 6 billion euros will be cut from public investment.

– The cuts are aimed at speeding up fiscal consolidation and meet Spain’s revised deficit targets of 9.3 percent of GDP in 2010 and 6 percent in 2011, compared with 11.2 percent in 2009.

– Public debt as a percentage of GDP is seen at 65.9 percent in 2010, rising to 71.9 percent in 2011.

Source: Reuters Bureaux

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Naples pizza restaurants ‘using wood from stolen coffins’

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 18 (ANI): Some pizza restaurants in Naples are using wood from stolen coffins, according to investigators.

The popular Italian dish is said to rely on smoke from wood-fired stoves for its celebrated flavour.

However, police believes few restaurant owners in the lawless port are buying cut-price wood from a gang of coffin thieves operating in the city.

The Daily Paper ‘Il Giornale’, which belongs to the family of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said: “A real suspicion hangs over pizza, one of the few remaining important symbols of the city, that it could be cooked with wood coffins.”

It added: “Not only the pizza, the bread, too, may have been cooked with the wood.”

Naples prosecutor Giovandomenico Lepore is leading an investigation into the suspected racket.

“It”s no wonder these things are happening given the state of the cemeteries. There are graves uncovered, thefts and vandalism,” the Independent quoted Andrea Santoro, president of the city”s cemetery commission, as saying.

Il Giornale further claimed that there was “a daily spectacle of uncovered coffins and human remains abandoned in the streets as if they were garbage”. (ANI)

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EU works on mechanism to stop Greek crisis spreading

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

European Union officials were working out the details of a financial support mechanism on Saturday to prevent Greece’s debt turmoil spreading to Portugal and Spain, ready for approval by EU finance ministers on Sunday.

The leaders of the 16 countries that use the single currency said on Friday after talks with the European Central Bank and the executive European Commission that they would take whatever steps were needed to protect the stability of the euro area.

Both Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy cancelled trips to Moscow to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two in order to continue consultations over the crisis, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would still go.

Financial markets have been pounding euro zone countries with high deficits or debts as well as low economic growth, threatening to force Portugal, Spain and Ireland into a position where, like Greece, they would need to seek financial aid.

The euro zone leaders, who have been accused of heightening market uncertainty with a lack of action, agreed to accelerate budget cuts and ensure deficit targets are met this year.

But they also decided, under pressure from the markets, to ask all 27 EU countries to agree a financial mechanism to ring-fence the Greek crisis before markets open on Monday.

“WORST CRISIS”

“The euro zone is going through the worst crisis since its creation,” Sarkozy said after Friday’s euro zone summit in Brussels.

“The leaders have decided to put in place a European intervention mechanism to preserve the stability of the euro zone. The decisions taken will have immediate application, from the point that financial markets open on Monday morning.”

“If the domino effect begins, no economy is safe,” Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told the Finnish broadcaster YLE on Saturday.

Euro zone sources said late on Friday that the mechanism could be funded by bonds issued by the European Commission with guarantees from euro zone states.

No details have been disclosed so far, but the sources said EU law provided a legal basis for such a mechanism.

The treaty governing the EU says that if a member of the 27-nation bloc is in difficulties caused by circumstances beyond its control, EU ministers may grant it financial assistance.

“Two mechanisms have been agreed — one based on article 122.2 of the Treaty saying the council can help a member state with serious difficulties,” one of the sources said.

“The other will enable the European Commission to go on the markets and get money with an explicit guarantee of the member states and an implicit guarantee of the ECB (European Central Bank,” the source added.

A second source said: “The details of this mechanism will be agreed by Sunday and the idea is to trigger both on Sunday.”

EMERGENCY LOANS

Friday’s EU summit approved $110 billion euros ($147 billion) in emergency EU/IMF loans to Greece over three years to help it over a budget crisis in exchange for austerity measures so sharp that they have already sparked violent protest.

There was some sign that popular anger might be subsiding as a new survey indicated that more than half of Greeks would rather back the EU/IMF deal than risk bankruptcy by going it alone, and were willing to make more sacrifices.

But fears that the loans might not be enough to prevent a Greek default and avert a broader economic crisis kept world stocks near a three-month low, despite strong U.S. jobs data.

Group of Seven finance ministers discussed the situation in a conference call on Friday after U.S. Federal Reserve officials expressed concern, and agreed to monitor the markets.

Earlier on Friday, the German parliament approved its share of the rescue, the largest contribution by a euro zone country.

But five German academics filed a legal challenge, reflecting widespread German public opposition, arguing that the aid was not provided for under EU treaties, and would give rise to inflationary policies.

Germany’s highest court on Saturday rejected their request to block the immediate release of a German loan.

Merkel, who initially resisted agreeing to Greek aid due to the opposition at home, told voters in a regional election that euro zone countries would “lead this fight for the stability of the euro together and with resolve”.

She said this did not only mean financial discipline.

“Those who created the excesses on the markets will be asked to pay up — those are in part the banks, those are the hedge funds that must be regulated … those are the short-sellers and we agreed yesterday to implement this more quickly in Europe.”

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Silvio Berlusconi ‘agrees to divorce’ second wife

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 10 (ANI): Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has reportedly agreed on a divorce settlement with his second wife/actress Veronica Lario.

According to reports, Lairo will receive “considerably less” than the 3.5 million Euros a month, she had demanded as maintenance.

Instead, Berlusconi, 73, has offered her up to 300,000 euros a month.

Also, she is likely to retain Villa Belvedere, her mansion at Macherio near Milan.

Legal sources revealed that the estranged couple, had “coldly shaken hands” after nearly five hours of talks at the Milan courthouse.

Nonetheless, they added that the outcome had been “satisfactory”.

Lario blamed the leader, who has been linked to different women in the past, for the split, reports the Times.

Meanwhile, Berlusconi’s aides suggested Lairo had an affair with a bodyguard.

Lario’s staff, however, denied the allegation.

The two have been married for twenty years and have three children together. (ANI)

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Woman fined for wearing burka in Italy

May 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Italian police have fined a Muslim woman for wearing a full Islamic veil in a street in the northern city of Novara, possibly the first such incident in Italy, city officials said.

“City police ticketed her last night and she will have to pay a 500-euro ($715) fine,” Mauro Franzinelli of the Novara municipal police said.

“As far as I know this is a first in Italy.”

Novara, in Italy’s north-eastern Piedmont region, is a stronghold of the anti-immigration Northern League, a key party in prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government.

The woman, a Tunisian national, was stopped by police officers outside a post office in the company of her husband.

When her husband refused to have her identified by male officers they called in a patrol comprising a woman officer.

“City hall adopted a decree in late January banning the burka in public places and their vicinity, which is based on a commentary by the interior ministry who received a copy of the draft,” said Mr Franzinelli.

Covering one’s face – with a veil or a motorcycle helmet – in public has been banned in Italy since 1975.

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Italy’s Fini defiant after clash with Berlusconi

April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ROME, April 25 (Reuters) – Italian right-wing leader Gianfranco Fini showed no regrets on Sunday after clashing with ally and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and said he would only respect party decisions that have been properly discussed.

Bonds

Fini and Berlusconi, joint founders of the ruling People of Freedom party, publicly crossed swords at a party congress on Thursday, when Fini accused his boss of stifling internal debate and giving too much power to the pro-autonomy Northern League.

Speaking in a television interview on Sunday, Fini said he was proud of having “torn the veil of hypocrisy” that gave a false impression of blanket internal party agreement.

Fini said he had no intention of heeding Berlusconi’s call for him to resign as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and he and his followers would “only respect party decisions that are discussed and motivated”.

The half-hour interview was Fini’s first public appearance since the clash which has dominated Italian media for the last three days and fuelled speculation about how long the centre-right government can last.

Berlusconi’s leadership “cannot and must not cancel out … the possibility of different opinions, sometimes of dissent,” he said.

Fini, viewed as a possible successor to the 73-year-old Berlusconi as prime minister, mixed his defiance with pledges of loyalty to the government, while rejecting the idea of early elections and denying he had any plans to form a separate party.

“Even talking about early elections is irresponsible,” he said, saying the fall of the government would expose Italy to “an enormous risk of ending up like Greece,” in reference to the Mediterranean country’s debt crisis.

“I have no intention of forming another party. I plan to continue discussing inside my own party about some political problems,” Fini said. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Berlusconi accused of ‘sacrilege’ in communion row

April 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr 22 (ANI): The Catholic church has accused Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of committing “sacrilege” by taking communion despite having divorced his first wife and being on the verge of second divorce.

The Roman Catholic Church prohibits divorcees who remarry from taking communion.

However, Berlusconi was accorded the privilege at the funeral of a well-known Italian television celebrity in Milan.

But, the leverage for the Italian premier has set off a heated debate between Catholic figures across Italy, with a priest in Genoa calling it a scandal.

“Berlusconi has committed sacrilege in the light of the fact that he is divorced and is in the process of getting divorced again,” the Telegraph quoted Father Paolo Farinella as saying.

He accused the Church of making one rule for the rich and famous and another for ordinary Catholics.

A former bishop from the southern region of Puglia, Monsignor Giuseppe Casale, said the 73-year-old premier should not be permitted to take communion because he had shown himself not to be “coherently Christian” with his behaviour.

The criticism was a veiled reference to the sex scandals, which engulfed the prime minister last summer. (ANI)

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$1 billion in property seized from Mafia clan

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Italian police have seized property including apartments and farms worth an estimated $1 billion from a powerful clan of the Camorra crime syndicate based in Naples.

Around 200 police officers swooped on property owned by the heirs of Dante Passarelli, a suspected Camorra chief.

Mr Passarelli fell to his death in mysterious circumstances while he was facing charges in a major anti-Mafia case in 2004.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi launched a series of initiatives in January to tackle the Mafia, including a national agency to manage confiscated property.

A law passed by the Berlusconi government in 2008 allows seizures from the relatives of Mafia members.

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Berlusconi struggles with apathy in regional vote

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday risked defeat in regional elections that saw record abstention, with his Northern League allies set to win their first two regions and looking more like rivals.

Projections from partial results from the vote in 13 out of Italy’s 20 regions had Berlusconi winning four, the centre left winning six and tying with the right in Lazio (which includes Rome), and the League doing even better than expected at two.

The 73-year-old centre-right premier, two years into a third term ending in 2013, campaigned actively to avoid the low turnout that was seen in this month’s French regional elections, which proved damaging for President Nicolas Sarkozy.

He had also dismissed talk of internal rivalry with the anti-immigrant Northern League, which already has key cabinet posts and could now seek more power within the ruling coalition.

The League was poised to win Piedmont from the centre left as forecast but also to seize Veneto from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party, according to projections with a quarter of votes counted.

All eyes were on Lazio, where bureaucratic bungling by the PDL excluded its list of candidates for Rome, and Berlusconi’s candidate Renata Polverini was neck-and-neck with centre-left former European Commissioner Emma Bonino.

DISGUST WITH POLITICS

Berlusconi seemed to have suffered from the low turnout, with just 64 percent of the 41 million people eligible voting versus about 72 percent in the last regional vote in 2005.

The premier’s spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, put a brave face on the partial results, saying victory in four regions “would mean we had doubled the number of regions versus five years ago”.

The centre left, trounced by Berlusconi in the national election in 2008, managed to hang on to its strongholds in central Italy by the skin of its teeth.

But the high level of abstention suggested disaffection with politics in general, according to analysts who cited candidates’ failure to address issues of most concern, like unemployment and the economic crisis, as well as the PDL’s bungling in Lazio and a recent corruption scandal involving a top Berlusconi aide.

“We are all a bit disgusted. I don’t have much of an opinion, but it’s clear they talked little about content and a lot about political infighting, which hasn’t pleased anyone,” said Rome voter Armando Rizzo.

After a turbulent 2009 for Berlusconi marked by a divorce, prostitution scandals and legal battles to keep him out of court on corruption charges, he is now being investigated for allegedly trying to shut down TV talk shows critical of him.

A poor result could tempt Berlusconi to spend his way back to favour. But his Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti enjoys the support of the League, whose gains could underpin his role as guardian of a strict line on spending that has stopped Italy’s fiscal position deteriorating as badly as its neighbours.

(Additional reporting by Gabriele Pileri and Ella Ide; editing by Dominic Evans)

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Low turnout haunts Berlusconi as Italy regions vote

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Graft scandals and bureaucratic bungling by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party appeared to put a damper on turnout, which could favour the opposition, as Italians voted on Sunday in regional elections.

“Recent episodes of corruption and the risk of unemployment keep voters away,” Nando Pagnoncelli of polling firm IPSOS said as polls opened across the country for the two-day vote.

More than 41 million people are eligible to vote for the governors of 13 of Italy’s 20 regions, as well as heads of four provinces and nearly 500 town halls. Voting ends at 3 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Monday.

Berlusconi denied any threat from junior coalition partner the Northern League, which could gain ground in the north, but urged supporters to avoid the low turnout of this month’s French regional vote that was damaging for President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The first official data on turnout, measured at midday on Sunday, showed a drop of nearly 3 percentage points versus the same stage in voting during the last regional vote five years ago, when 71.5 percent of eligible voters turned out in total.

“The only possible way to read these first numbers is that turnout will be 10 points below five years ago, at 62 percent or maximum 65 percent,” said pollster Nicola Piepoli, quoted by Ansa news agency, adding that “abstention favours the left”.

The 73-year-old premier has said his nearly two-year-old government would not see major changes whatever the outcome of the vote. His third term in office is due to end in 2013.

Casting his vote in Milan, the prime minister spoke of the tense atmosphere in Italian politics in recent months, which saw him attacked by a mentally instable man late last year and a letter bomb sent to the Northern League explode on Saturday.

“I hope that hatred does not prevail over love,” said the media tycoon and owner of AC Milan soccer club.

TURBULENT TIMES

Pollsters say rising unemployment is the top concern for 79 percent of Italians and expect the centre right to keep control of the Lombardy and Veneto regions in the industrial north and win over Calabria and possibly Campania in the poorer south.

The centre left, ousted from power by Berlusconi in the 2008 national election, should hold on to at least five regions, four of them in its traditional central heartland — Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche — and Basilicata in the south.

Four other regions — including Piedmont and the Lazio region which contains Rome — are too close to call.

Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party suffered a big setback by missing a deadline for registering its list of candidates for Rome, handicapping its contender for governor of Lazio, Renata Polverini, against former European Commissioner Emma Bonino.

The prime minister appealed and lost, blaming “communist” judges whom he accuses of persecuting him with corruption charges since he first entered politics in the early 1990s.

After a turbulent 2009 for Berlusconi marked by his divorce, prostitution scandals and legal battles to keep him out of court on corruption charges, the premier is now being investigated for allegedly trying to shut down TV talk shows critical of him.

In addition to that, a top aide who directed rescue efforts after last April’s earthquake in L’Aquila is accused of graft.

Analysts say these factors could affect the result and the balance of power in his coalition. The anti-immigrant Northern League, which already has key cabinet posts, could rob votes in the industrial north from Berlusconi’s party.

Polls saw the League winning in Veneto, neck and neck with the centre left in Piedmont and performing so well in Lombardy that League leader Umberto Bossi talked openly this week about one day replacing the PDL’s current mayor of Milan.

A strong showing for the League could also weaken Gianfranco Fini, the lower house speaker seen as a possible successor to Berlusconi. His National Alliance merged with Berlusconi’s PDL last year but he often criticises the government.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti is close to the League and denied any internal rivalry. He has clashed with other ministers for refusing to spend big money to help Italy out of its worst recession since World War Two — a stance credited with sparing Italy the fiscal crisis now rocking some European neighbours.

Tremonti looked forward to the period after the vote when “we will have three years without elections, a great opportunity to get things done like we have never seen in Italy”.

(Reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Paul Casciato)

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UPDATE 1-Low turnout haunts Berlusconi as Italy regions vote

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

* More than 41 million Italians eligible to vote

Bonds

* Result could influence balance in coalition

* Early turnout is low, could favour opposition

(Adds data indicating low turnout)

By Stephen Brown

ROME, March 28 (Reuters) – Graft scandals and bureaucratic bungling by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party appeared to put a damper on turnout, which could favour the opposition, as Italians voted on Sunday in regional elections.

“Recent episodes of corruption and the risk of unemployment keep voters away,” Nando Pagnoncelli of polling firm IPSOS said as polls opened across the country for the two-day vote.

More than 41 million people are eligible to vote for the governors of 13 of Italy’s 20 regions, as well as heads of four provinces and nearly 500 town halls. Voting ends at 3 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Monday.

Berlusconi denied any threat from junior coalition partner the Northern League, which could gain ground in the north, but urged supporters to avoid the low turnout of this month’s French regional vote that was damaging for President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The first official data on turnout, measured at midday on Sunday, showed a drop of nearly 3 percentage points versus the same stage in voting during the last regional vote five years ago, when 71.5 percent of eligible voters turned out in total.

“The only possible way to read these first numbers is that turnout will be 10 points below five years ago, at 62 percent or maximum 65 percent,” said pollster Nicola Piepoli, quoted by Ansa news agency, adding that “abstention favours the left”.

The 73-year-old premier has said his nearly two-year-old government would not see major changes whatever the outcome of the vote. His third term in office is due to end in 2013.

Casting his vote in Milan, the prime minister spoke of the tense atmosphere in Italian politics in recent months, which saw him attacked by a mentally instable man late last year and a letter bomb sent to the Northern League explode on Saturday.

“I hope that hatred does not prevail over love,” said the media tycoon and owner of AC Milan soccer club.

TURBULENT TIMES

Pollsters say rising unemployment is the top concern for 79 percent of Italians and expect the centre right to keep control of the Lombardy and Veneto regions in the industrial north and win over Calabria and possibly Campania in the poorer south.

The centre left, ousted from power by Berlusconi in the 2008 national election, should hold on to at least five regions, four of them in its traditional central heartland — Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche — and Basilicata in the south.

Four other regions — including Piedmont and the Lazio region which contains Rome — are too close to call.

Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party suffered a big setback by missing a deadline for registering its list of candidates for Rome, handicapping its contender for governor of Lazio, Renata Polverini, against former European Commissioner Emma Bonino.

The prime minister appealed and lost, blaming “communist” judges whom he accuses of persecuting him with corruption charges since he first entered politics in the early 1990s.

After a turbulent 2009 for Berlusconi marked by his divorce, prostitution scandals and legal battles to keep him out of court on corruption charges, the premier is now being investigated for allegedly trying to shut down TV talk shows critical of him.

In addition to that, a top aide who directed rescue efforts after last April’s earthquake in L’Aquila is accused of graft.

Analysts say these factors could affect the result and the balance of power in his coalition. The anti-immigrant Northern League, which already has key cabinet posts, could rob votes in the industrial north from Berlusconi’s party.

Polls saw the League winning in Veneto, neck and neck with the centre left in Piedmont and performing so well in Lombardy that League leader Umberto Bossi talked openly this week about one day replacing the PDL’s current mayor of Milan.

A strong showing for the League could also weaken Gianfranco Fini, the lower house speaker seen as a possible successor to Berlusconi. His National Alliance merged with Berlusconi’s PDL last year but he often criticises the government.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti is close to the League and denied any internal rivalry. He has clashed with other ministers for refusing to spend big money to help Italy out of its worst recession since World War Two — a stance credited with sparing Italy the fiscal crisis now rocking some European neighbours.

Tremonti looked forward to the period after the vote when “we will have three years without elections, a great opportunity to get things done like we have never seen in Italy”.

(For a factbox on the Italian elections please click on [ID:nLDE62N0S7])

(Reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Number of asylum seekers in West stable, belies myth – U.N.

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The number of people seeking asylum in the West last year remained stable, shattering the myth that there is a flood of people trying to reach rich countries, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Some 377,200 people claiming to flee conflict or persecution applied for asylum in 2009, only 100 more than the previous year, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

“The notion that there is a flood of asylum seekers into richer countries is a myth,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“Despite what some populists claim, our data shows that the numbers have remained stable,” added the former Portuguese prime minister who heads the Geneva-based agency.

The annual report covers 44 industrialised countries including the 27 European Union (EU) member states, Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

It found significant disparities at regional and country level, but had no information on percentages of claims accepted.

The EU registered the bulk of claims with 246,200 last year, a 3 percent rise from 2008, the UNHCR said. Increases were highest in the 12 “new” EU member states which are mostly in central and eastern Europe.

The Nordic region recorded a 13 percent increase in applications with 51,100 requests, the highest in six years.

But in eight countries of southern Europe, applications fell significantly, driven by a 42 percent decline in Italy. Asylum seekers may be taking other routes to northern Europe, spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

Asylum and immigration are a sensitive issue in many EU countries, such as Italy and Greece, which say they cannot cope with hundreds of thousands of people arriving as potential illegal migrants, often on rickety boats.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre right government last year approved tough legislation making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to help one. Italy also extended the period of time illegal immigrants can be detained from two to six months.

AFGHANS TOP LIST

For the first time since 2001, Afghans topped the list of applicants in industrialised countries with 26,800 requests, up 45 percent from the previous year, the UNHCR said. Afghans now make up 7 percent of all asylum applicants in the West.

“Ongoing violence in Afghanistan is driving Afghans from their homes and more are seeking asylum in industrialised countries,” Fleming told a news briefing.

“But we cannot forget that the vast majority of refugees are hosted in developing countries. There are 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan and 1 million in Iran,” she added.

Iraqis fell to second place with 24,000 claims in the West, a 40 percent drop, followed by Somalis with 22,600 applications.

Russian asylum seekers were fourth, stable at 20,400, but Chinese asylum seekers rose to 20,100, the highest since 2004.

For the fourth year running, the United States was the main destination country, with 49,000 or 13 percent of all claims lodged, UNHCR said. Almost a third were from Chinese applicants.

France, in second place with 42,000 applications, saw a 19 percent increase, mainly due to rising claims from citizens of Serbia originating mainly from Kosovo, it said.

Canada, in third place, saw applications drop by 10 percent to 33,000 after a fall in claims from Mexicans and Haitians.

Fourth-place Britain received 29,800 applications, a 5 percent drop from 2008 and “one of the lowest in 15 years”, the UNHCR said. Germany was fifth with 27,600 claims.

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Berlusconi to push for ‘greater powers’ by changes to Italian constitution

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Rome (Italy), Mar 22(ANI): Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that he will push for changes in the constitution by referendum to give him greater powers as a “directly elected president”.

Addressing supporters of his People of Liberty party at a rally in Rome, Berlusconi said that he has planned a “great, great, great reform” in the remaining three years of his term.

The Prime Minister is calling for changes to the judiciary, which he claims is biased against him, a cut in the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) and direct elections for a head of state with expanded powers.

Talking about the investigation being carried out by Magistrates over tapped phone conversations indicating that he had tried to block his critics from appearing on TV shows, Berlusconi said the “leftist” judges and politicians had concocted “a laughable investigation based on the calls.

“We don’t often take to the streets, but it was absolutely necessary to defend ourselves from the attacks of the Left and its magistrates,” The Times quoted Berlusconi, as saying.

“We are here to have our right to vote guaranteed. With you, love and freedom will win,” he added. (ANI)

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‘Berlusconi will have to resign if immunity law overturned’

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Rome, Sep. 18 (ANI): Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be forced to resign if laws providing him immunity are overturned by the Constitutional Court next month, his lawyers have admitted.

“If the Constitutional Court, which begins its deliberations on October 6, overturns the law there would be damage to the functions of an elected official, which could not be carried out”, Times Online quoted Glauco Nori, a state lawyer for the prime minister’s office, as saying.

The move could cause “irreparable damage” and lead to the Prime Minister’s resignation, he added.

After coming to power for the third time in 2008, Berlusconi pushed the law through Parliament, which gives immunity to the offices of Prime Minister, President and the Speakers of both houses of parliament from court trials, which was dubbed

As being “tailor-made” to shield Berlusconi from corruption charges, by the opposition, the report said.

At the time when legislation was passed, Berlusconi was being prosecuted for allegedly giving a 600,000-dollar bribe to British lawyer David Mills to provide false testimony on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s, it added.

Berlusconi’s trial was suspended but Mills was sentenced to 41/2 years in jail.

According to the report, the Milan prosecutor’s office had recently submitted its own memorandum to the court, challenging the immunity law as violating the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.

If the immunity law is struck off next month, corruption charges against Berlusconi are likely to be revived.

According to reports, magistrates in Milan and Palermo are also investigating Berlusconi’s suspected links to the Mafia in the 1990s. (ANI)

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Now, Berlusconi says most Italians want to be like him

September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sept 8 (ANI): After describing himself as “Superman”, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said: “Most Italians want to be like me.”

The controversial 72-year-old premier, who has repeatedly denied allegations of inappropriate relationships with young women, insisted during a television interview: “Most Italians would like to be like me and they support my behaviour.

“Italian aren’t stupid, as the Left thinks, and they prefer my government.

“Just look at the polls, we have an approval rating sailing towards 70 per cent”.

The premier’s personal life came under media glare after news of him attending birthday of Noemi Letizia, 18, a model, erupted, reports The Telegraph.

However, he has insisted that “nothing spicy” happened between him and Letizia.

He has also said he cannot remember the escort Patrizia D’Addario, 42, spending the night at his official Palazzo Grazioli residence in Rome.

Last week Berlusconi described himself as “Superman”.(ANI)

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