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« Reply #90 on: March 04, 2013, 11:23:06 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/prospect-italy-vote-heightens-grillo-faces-ultimatum-091130173--business.html

Bersani ultimatum may bring new Italy election closer

3/4/13
ROME (Reuters) - Italy could be inching closer towards another election within months after center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani issued an ultimatum to anti-establishment 5-Star Movement boss Beppe Grillo to support a new government or return to the polls.
 
Last week's inconclusive election, in which Grillo won a huge protest vote, left no group with a working majority in parliament, making an alliance with a rival the only way out.
 
In an interview on RAI state television late on Sunday, Bersani underlined his opposition to two of the options currently being floated - another technocrat government like the outgoing one led by Mario Monti or a grand coalition with Silvio Berlusconi's center-right.
 
That would leave only one possibility to avoid elections - Grillo's backing for the center-left, which won the lower house in the election but does not have enough support to rule in the Senate.

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« Reply #91 on: March 04, 2013, 03:54:00 pm »

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/italy-berlusconi-idUSL6N0BWLK920130304?feedType=RSS&feedName=cyclicalConsumerGoodsSector&rpc=43

3/4/13
UPDATE 1-Berlusconi parties were for prostitution - prosecution

* Prosecution says "bunga bunga" parties involved prostitution

* In statement, Berlusconi says lucky enough to never have to pay

* Berlusconi and "Ruby", then a teenager, deny they had sex

* Media magnate's dental hygienist accused of prostitution (Adds Berlusconi statement)

By Sara Rossi

MILAN, March 4 (Reuters) - Parties at Silvio Berlusconi's Milan villa were arranged for prostitution and were not the elegant dinners he suggested, the prosecution in the Italian former prime minister's sex trial said on Monday.

Making closing arguments in Berlusconi's trial on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute, prosecutor Antonio Sangermano said the parties involved dinner, erotic "bunga bunga" dancing and then sex between aspiring women TV presenters and invited guests.

"I am a bit surprised and a little amused by the prosecution's closing arguments," Berlusconi said in a statement.

"I have had the double good fortune, perhaps deservedly, that I have never had to pay for intimate relations with a girl or a woman and I have always been able to give a positive response to anyone asking me for help. The prosecutor was probably not so fortunate," the media magnate said.

The scandals circling Berlusconi have increased the reluctance of other parties to cooperate with him in parliament after last week's inconclusive election, despite his remarkable performance in taking his centre-right group from close to disintegration last autumn into second place in the vote.

Berlusconi denies charges that he paid for sex with Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug when she was 17 and then abused his power as prime minister to get her released from Milan's police headquarters, where she was held on suspicion of theft in May 2010.

Mahroug, a teenage runaway widely known under her stage name of "Ruby the Heartstealer" also denies having sex with Berlusconi, 76, at the parties in his villa or elsewhere.

Sangermano accused former Lombardy regional councillor Nicole Minetti, once Berlusconi's dental hygienist, of taking part in acts of prostitution and inducing others to do so.

Minetti is on trial separately - with Emilio Fede, a former senior journalist in Berlusconi's media empire, and show business talent scout Lele Mora - on charges of procurement.

Berlusconi faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted although nothing will be final until two appeals allowed by Italian law, usually a lengthy process.

The verdict in the Ruby trial is expected on March 18 and Berlusconi faces judgment in two other trials this month, one for tax fraud and the other for making public the taped contents of a confidential phone call.

His legal troubles deepened last week when prosecutors revealed he was under investigation for bribing a senator to change sides in parliament in 2006.

Berlusconi's lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, said the prosecution's summing up was "exquisitely one-sided".
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« Reply #92 on: March 05, 2013, 11:42:56 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/italian-president-mulls-technocrat-government-sources-113723497.html

3/5/13
Italian president mulls new technocrat government: sources

ROME (Reuters) - President Giorgio Napolitano is considering appointing a new technocrat government led by a non-politician as one way out of Italy's political stalemate, Italian officials said on Tuesday.
 
Such a solution would come into play if center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani failed to form a government after receiving an initial mandate from Napolitano, as is expected, they said.
 
"Napolitano wants a government with the broadest possible support that will last as long as possible," one of the officials told Reuters.
 
Bersani won a majority in the lower house of parliament and says he has the right to be the first to try to form a government, although he has no workable majority in the Senate.
 
However, 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo, who holds the whip hand after winning a huge protest vote, responded to speculation about a technocrat government in Italian media on Tuesday by saying he would not support such an administration.
 
"Technocrat governments don't exist in nature but only political governments supported by parliamentary majorities. The Monti government was the most political government since the war," he said on his blog.

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« Reply #93 on: March 06, 2013, 10:43:01 am »

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/italys-bersani-seeks-way-forward-vote-impasse-141334106--business.html

3/6/13
Italy's Bersani seeks way forward after vote impasse

ROME (Reuters) - Italian center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, under fire for falling short in last week's election, sought on Wednesday to rally his party behind a plan to form a minority government backed by populist leader Beppe Grillo.
 
Bersani, whose coalition threw away a 10-point lead in the opinion polls before the February 24-25 vote, won control of the lower house but let slip a workable parliamentary majority by failing to win the Senate.
 
The result has left no group able to form a government on its own and Italy facing weeks of uncertainty. A new election could be called within months if no accord can be reached between the divided parties.
 
In an address to officials of his Democratic Party in Rome, Bersani, a 61-year-old former industry minister, acknowledged that the result was a defeat but said the left was the only political force capable of forming a government.

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« Reply #94 on: March 07, 2013, 05:02:30 pm »

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/berlusconi-convicted-wiretap-case-18673130

Berlusconi Convicted in Wiretap Case
3/7/13
Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was convicted Thursday over the illegal publication in a newspaper owned by his media empire of wiretapped conversations related to a bank takeover attempt.
 
A Milan court found Berlusconi guilty of breach of confidentiality and sentenced him to one year in jail, though it did not issue an order on carrying out the sentence. In Italy, it is rare for anyone to be put behind bars pending a possible appeal except in the case of very serious crimes like murder.
 
The verdict, the first of three expected for Berlusconi in the coming weeks, comes at a moment of political uncertainty for the country after February national elections failed to elect a clear winner. Berlusconi's center-right coalition finished second.
 
The conviction, however, has no bearing on Berlusconi's eligibility to participate in discussions on forming a new government, which are expected to begin March 20. Lawmakers have failed, despite several attempts, to pass a law banning candidates from Parliament after any criminal conviction.
 
While Berlusconi's party won't be tapped to form a new government, a task that is expected to fall to Pier Luigi Bersani on the center-left, President Giorgio Napolitano will be looking to secure as broad agreement as possible for legislative priorities.
 
Napolitano's role as president is to preside over coalition talks by convening the parliamentary groups for private meetings in which he seeks to gain consensus for a new government — a particularly difficult task given the three-way gridlock resulting from last month's vote.
 
The third player with influence on the discussions is comic-turned-civic leader Beppe Grillo, who has said his movement —which gained 25 percent of the vote — won't formally support any government with a vote of confidence, which must be secured by Italy's constitution. It remains to be seen how this conflict can be resolved.
 
Berlusconi, in a statement, accused the courts of judicial persecution "that continues for 20 years and is revived every time there are particularly complex moments in the political life of the country."
 
He said he expects convictions in his pending Milan trials: an appeal to his October conviction on a tax fraud charge and the sensational sex-for-hire trial that accuses him of having paid for sex with an under-age teen and using his influence to cover it up.
 
Berlusconi's brother, Paolo Berlusconi, was convicted of the same charge and sentenced to two years and three months. Paolo Berlusconi is publisher of the Milan newspaper il Giornale, which published the transcript of the conversation.
 
Silvio Berlusconi's defense team and political allies accused the court of seeking a speedy verdict for political impact.
 
"It is always more clear that there is an attempt to eliminate Silvio Berlusconi by judicial means, having failed by electoral or democratic measures," said Angelino Alfano, the head of Belursconi's People of Freedom party.
 
The charge relates to the 2005 publication of a wiretapped call that was part of an investigation into the Unipol financial services company's bid to take over the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro. The bid was later blocked by Italy's central bank, contributing to the forced resignation of then-Bank of Italy chief Antonio Fazio — and led to a series of trials that saw Fazio and others convicted.
 
Wiretapped conversations are widely published in Italian media, despite the risks of prosecution.
 
In a potentially more damaging case, the verdict is also nearing in Berlusconi's appeals trial on a conviction of tax fraud in the purchase of rights to broadcast Hollywood films on Berlusconi's Mediaset network. Prosecutors have demanded the court uphold the conviction and four-year sentence. They also are seeking a five-year ban from public office.
 
Berlusconi also is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying a Moroccan teen for sex during his now-infamous Bunga Bunga parties, with a verdict likely this month.
 
Prosecutors in Naples are investigating him for corruption for allegedly paying an opposition lawmaker €3 million ($3.9 million) to join his party, a move that significantly weakened the previous center-left government of Romano Prodi.
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« Reply #95 on: March 11, 2013, 12:21:40 am »

I was talking with my dad over the weekend(when we and my mom were out of town visiting my brother and his family) over Italy's current election, and Europe countries's elections in general.

First off, it's not like America's elections - in that it's not that simple. Pretty much the party that gets a certain majority of votes will put their leader as PM.(unlike America where the President, Senate, Congress, etc are elected separately) And b/c Italy didn't, and to make matters worse there was another party(lead by a comedian) thrown in, one of the parties didn't get that certain majority vote, and hence everything is deadlocked.

With that being said - yes, I know the game is rigged - but with all that went on...with the Italian public not happy with the current regime b/c their debt-ridden economy is really at a low point now, it gave Silvia Berlisconi(despite all of his various criminal trials going on) alot of momentum going on. And yes, this despite Berlisconi being a disgraced PM not-too-long-ago. It sure looked like Berlisconi's party was going to catch up and win, until Pope Benedict announced his resignation, hence halting Berlisconi's party's current momentum b/c Benedict was taking over Italy's news coverages from there on out. AND to top everything off, another Italy party steps in lead by some comedian that ends up getting some solid support.

As you can see, all of this has gone BY DESIGN - NOTHING's a coincidence here. No matter how rotten the current Italy leadership regime is, the citizens end up slowly but surely blindly have this mindset that some once-disgraced-not-too-long-ago former PM in Berlisconi will put on a cape and save the country, and some entertainer comedian to boot to add to the Hegelian Dialectic. But nonetheless all of this has lead to one BIG mess - and Berlisconi isn't going anywhere despite all of his criminal trials going on(from wiretapping a business company to underage sex with a minor, etc).

Isn't this rather similar to what went on here last year? A non-natural born citizen President residing over the worst economy since the Great Depression, meaning there was NO WAY he would get re-elected, right? Then his opponent just happened to be just as liberal as he is, and a Mormon to boot - but nonetheless perception was thrown out to everyone how Romney would be the "lesser of 2 evils" which would somehow mean Obamacare, Roe v Wade et al would get tossed out. At one point it sure looked like Romney was gaining alot of momentum until Hurricane Sandy happened late in October, which all but "halted" his "momentum".And throw in Ron Paul/Rand Paul that played "good cop" in all of this mess to not only give people a voice, but to do their part in tilting the election in the NWO's way.
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« Reply #96 on: March 11, 2013, 03:34:36 pm »

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/business/global/12iht-euitaly12.html?partner=yahoofinance&_r=0
3/11/13
Thousands of Struggling Italian Firms Hang on Edge

GUIDONIA, ITALY — Emanuele Tedeschi wiped sawdust from his hands and gestured around the cavernous woodworking factory that has been in his family for two generations. The big machines, which used to run overtime carving custom furnishings for private homes, Roman palazzi and even the Vatican, sat idle on a shop floor nearly devoid of workers. “A year and a half ago, the noise from production was so loud that you had to shout to be heard,” said Mr. Tedeschi, walking amid pallets of cherry and other fine woods stacked up and waiting for a purpose.  Since a government austerity plan designed to shield Italy from Europe’s debt crisis took hold last year, the economy has tumbled into one of worst recessions of any euro zone country, and Mr. Tedeschi’s orders have all but dried up. His company, Temeca, is still in business. For now. But among Italy’s estimated six million companies, businesses of all sizes have been going belly up at the rate of 1,000 a day over the last year, especially among the small and midsize companies that represent the backbone of Italy’s €1.5 trillion, or $2 trillion, economy.
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« Reply #97 on: March 13, 2013, 08:27:21 pm »

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/two-thirds-italians-oppose-returning-ballot-box-poll-153518688.html
3/13/13
Two-thirds of Italians oppose returning to ballot box: poll

ROME (Reuters) - Two-thirds of Italians oppose returning to the ballot boxes after last month's national election left the country in limbo with no political force holding enough seats to form a government, according to a poll published on Wednesday. The center-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani won control of the lower house, but not the Senate in the February 24-25 vote. Both are needed to govern. Bersani has since made repeated overtures to the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement for support in the Senate, all of which have been rejected by the bloc's leader, comic Beppe Grillo, raising the specter of a snap vote.
 
Half of Italians said the best solution for the current gridlock would be a government led by Bersani and backed by the 5-Star Movement, an IPR Marketing poll said. A third of respondents said another technocrat government like the one that caretaker Prime Minister Mario Monti has led since November 2011 would be the best way to avoid an immediate election, the poll showed. A technocrat government would require right-left support in parliament, and would presumably exclude the 5-Star Movement.

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« Reply #98 on: April 27, 2013, 01:50:02 pm »

Well, looks like it didn't take them long to get this dog and pony show over - we'll see the fruits of their Hegelian Dialectic they played out.

http://news.yahoo.com/italy-forms-government-2-month-stalemate-153710380.html
Italy forms new government after 2-month stalemate
4/27/13

ROME (AP) — Center-left leader Enrico Letta forged a new Italian government Saturday in a coalition with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, an unusual alliance of bitter rivals that broke a two-month political stalemate from inconclusive elections in the recession-mired country.

The daunting achievement was pulled off by Letta, who will be sworn in as premier along with the new Cabinet on Sunday at the presidential Quirinal Palace.

Letta, 46, is a moderate with a reputation as a political bridge-builder. He is also the nephew Berlusconi's longtime adviser, Gianni Letta, a relationship seen as smoothing over often nasty interaction between the two main coalition partners.

Serving as deputy premier and interior minister will be Berlusconi's top political aide, Angelino Alfano. He is a former justice minister who was the architect of legislation that critics say was tailor-made to help media mogul Berlusconi in his many judicial woes.

The creation of the coalition capped the latest political comeback for Berlusconi, a former three-time premier who was forced to resign in 2011 as Italy slid deeper in to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

On Monday, Letta is expected to lay out his strategy to Parliament, ahead of required confidence votes from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

"We negotiated for the formation of the government without throwing up any stop signs," Berlusconi to told one of his TV networks. "That's how we contributed to forming a government in short time" after Letta was tapped Wednesday.

Berlusconi, a fervent anti-Communist, views Italy's left as a personal nemesis, and Letta's Democratic Party has some of its roots in what was the West's largest Communist Party.

Letta expressed "sober satisfaction over the team we put together and its willingness" to form a coalition.

Only a few weeks earlier, the head of the Democrats, Pier Luigi Bersani, resigned from the party post in humiliation and he refused Berlusconi's offer for a "grand coalition" and futilely tried to form a government without the center-right. Letta was a Bersani loyalist.

Bersani hailed the coalition formula as a "necessary compromise" that gives the country "freshness and solidarity."

The No. 3 bloc in Parliament, the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, is led by comic Beppe Grillo, who ruled out any alliance with the largely sullied political class that has ruled Italy for decades.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who tasked Letta with creating a government out of bitter rivals, called upon the coalition partners to work "in a spirit of absolute, indispensable cohesion" as they work for sorely needed political and economic reforms.

The 87-year-old head of state sounded almost breathless as he expressed confidence the rivals could work together "without conflict or prejudices to find the right solutions" to the country's pressing economic and political problems.

Napolitano didn't name the challenges, but they include fighting unemployment, especially for young people, and corruption sullying much of the political class.

Napolitano said: "It was and is the only possible government," and one "whose formation couldn't be delayed further, in the interest of our country and of Europe."

He reluctantly agreed to be re-elected by Parliament earlier this month for another seven-year term because of the political instability.

Italy's economy is No. 3 among eurozone members, and financial markets have been anxiously watching to see if an effective government could be formed to carry on with outgoing Premier Mario Monti's efforts to keep the country from sliding into the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

Some Italian political observers have predicted such a hybrid government might last only a few months of Parliament's five-year term, before collapsing in squabbling.

But the fear of elections, especially after the lightning-quick rise of comic Grillo's grassroots movement, could prove to be strong glue.

Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of LUISS university's school of government in Rome, ventured that Letta's new coalition could "last more than we expect, 18 to 24 months, more or less."

The history professor cited "lack of alternatives, and because I believe Parliament's members are not particularly eager to get back to the polling booth and face new elections."

Voters, fed up with new and higher taxes, including a despised property tax revived by Monti, rejected his severe austerity policies.

The small centrist party created in time for the election by Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, will participate in the coalition, although Monti won't be in the Cabinet, which is heavy on two novelties — a large presence of female ministers and Italy's first black minister.

A native of Congo, Cecile Kyenge is a doctor who will serve as minister of integration. Proposals to make it easier for Italy' growing immigrant population to become citizens have gone nowhere in Parliament amid fierce opposition from the anti-immigrant Northern League party. The party, a Berlusconi ally, isn't in the new government.

Prominent among the women in the Cabinet is Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner and Radical Party leader who will serve as foreign minister. Olympic gold medal kayaker Josefa Idem was tapped as minister of equal opportunity and sports.

Letta comes from a moderate wing of the left-rooted Democratic Party that is close to the Vatican. Since Parliament always includes an array of lawmakers enjoying good ties to the politically influential Catholic church in Italy, this was one more qualification on Letta's bridge-building resume.

The father of three sons, he lives in Rome's working-class Testaccio neighborhood. When he was tapped by Napolitano on Wednesday, he drove his own car to the Quirinal Palace, in what was seen as a photo opportunity gesture to Italian taxpayers who widely despise the huge fleet of luxury cars that shuttles around ministers and lawmakers.

In 1998, when he was 32, Letta became the youngest minister in Italy's history when he served as minister for European policy for then-Premier Massimo D'Alema, an ex-Communist leader. Letta seemed a natural for that post. He spent his childhood in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, and studied international law before jumping into politics.
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« Reply #99 on: April 27, 2013, 02:09:00 pm »

ROME (AP) — Center-left leader Enrico Letta forged a new Italian government Saturday in a coalition with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, an unusual alliance of bitter rivals that broke a two-month political stalemate from inconclusive elections in the recession-mired country.

The daunting achievement was pulled off by Letta, who will be sworn in as premier along with the new Cabinet on Sunday at the presidential Quirinal Palace.

Letta, 46, is a moderate with a reputation as a political bridge-builder. He is also the nephew Berlusconi's longtime adviser, Gianni Letta, a relationship seen as smoothing over often nasty interaction between the two main coalition partners.

Serving as deputy premier and interior minister will be Berlusconi's top political aide, Angelino Alfano. He is a former justice minister who was the architect of legislation that critics say was tailor-made to help media mogul Berlusconi in his many judicial woes.

Very interesting...obviously, this whole charade was pre-scripted a long time ago. This whole "gridlock" became another Problem-Reaction-Solution Hegelian Dialectic pre-planned - and could lead to the final nail in the coffin of the EU.
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« Reply #100 on: August 03, 2013, 01:31:55 pm »

Well, this is yet another example of the citizens running up to support the "flavor du jour" candidate, hoping he will somehow save the country. The game is rigged, but nonetheless it seems like people from across the world will fall for the "flavor du jour" every time. You saw it with the "truth" movement doing so with Ron/Rand Paul recently as well.

When Jesus was talking about Caesar, he didn't exactly say there was a "good" and a "bad" Caesar...

Matthew 22:18  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Mat 22:19  Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
Mat 22:20  And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
Mat 22:21  They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
Mat 22:22  When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way
.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/italys-fragile-coalition-bickers-over-berlusconi-conviction-165029672.html
Italy's fragile coalition bickers over Berlusconi conviction
ReutersBy Naomi O'Leary | Reuters – 1 hour 35 minutes ago
.

ROME (Reuters) - Politicians in Italy's fragile coalition government traded increasingly heated barbs on Saturday over a tax conviction that threatens the political future of center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi.

The former prime minister has told his party to demand reform of the justice system - which he maintains found him guilty of tax fraud because of political bias - or withdraw from a delicate coalition with the center-left Democratic Party (PD) that has so far lasted three months.

Financial markets have shrugged off the upheaval until now, but strife in the coalition threatens efforts to revive an economy mired in its longest post-war recession.

On Friday, five ministers from Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party said they were ready to resign if needed, and senior party officials agreed to lobby President Giorgio Napolitano to issue a pardon. The party has called a Sunday demonstration in central Rome in support of Berlusconi.

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« Reply #101 on: August 03, 2013, 05:11:50 pm »

Matthew 22:18  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Mat 22:19  Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
Mat 22:20  And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
Mat 22:21  They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
Mat 22:22  When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way
.

Should we take this as meaning: we should pay attention to what's going on, but not worry as Matthew 24:6 says?

Matthew 24:6
(6)  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
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« Reply #102 on: August 03, 2013, 05:29:54 pm »

Should we take this as meaning: we should pay attention to what's going on, but not worry as Matthew 24:6 says?

Matthew 24:6
(6)  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.


Yeah, that's how I interpreted this as well - it seems like every election year, time and time again the mainstream Churchianity community(in particular) will rally around whatever Republican candidate(yes, they did the same with Romney last year - forget W. Bush's occult connections, Romney's Mormon ties were very outward).

Right there it shows a lack of faith, instead of knowing the Lord's will be done in heaven as is on earth. Same with Italy - it was as if the citizens there acted out of fear and desperation when they rallied around a disgraced political figure who was on his way to jail to begin with.

Ultimately, yes, the Lord says let not your hearts be troubled...
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« Reply #103 on: August 22, 2013, 11:46:01 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/italian-coalition-close-breaking-point-over-berlusconi-fate-130737509.html
Italian coalition close to breaking point over Berlusconi fate
8/22/13

ROME (Reuters) - Relations between the partners in Italy's coalition government seemed close to breaking point on Thursday over whether to evict Silvio Berlusconi from parliament over a tax fraud conviction.

A row is raging between Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party and the center-left Democratic Party (PD) of Prime Minister Enrico Letta following the 76-year-old media mogul's conviction by the supreme court early this month.

PDL sources said party secretary Angelino Alfano told Letta in a tense meeting on Wednesday night that the party would bring down the government if the PD voted in the Senate next month to throw Berlusconi out of parliament, something the center-left party has repeatedly said it will do.

Alfano said on Thursday he was very worried about the PD taking such a clear line before even hearing arguments in a Senate committee which begins meeting on September 9.

"We very clearly ask that the PD thinks about this, abandoning 20 years of hostility, and reflects on the wisdom of voting to remove Berlusconi," he said.

The PDL cites some legal experts as saying the anti-corruption law, under which Berlusconi would be expelled from parliament and prevented from standing as a political candidate, cannot be applied in this case.

But PD secretary Guglielmo Epifani said they wouldn't change their minds and the country could not afford a government crisis just as it starts to see the first tentative signs of recovery from its worst postwar recession.

Many PD members are up in arms over even sharing in a coalition with Berlusconi's party and any attempt to save their sworn enemy could break apart the already fractious center left.

"For us the compass is the interests of the country which come before our interests and even more so ahead of the interests of a single person," Epifani said.

Letta says the government must forge ahead to encourage economic recovery and Berlusconi's judicial problems are not an issue for his administration. "I will not accept blackmail and neither are ultimatums acceptable," he said on Wednesday night.

BERLUSCONI DESPERATE

Berlusconi is desperately trying to find a way to stay in the political game despite a four-year jail sentence, commuted to one year, for a massive tax fraud at his Mediaset broadcasting empire. He is expected to start serving the sentence, either under house arrest or doing social work, in mid-October.

Berlusconi, who has been holed up in his luxury villa near Milan since the verdict, has ordered his lieutenants to pile on the pressure in the hope of forcing the PD to at least delay any Senate judgment. His aides have unsuccessfully lobbied President Giorgio Napolitano for a pardon.

In an advance excerpts from a magazine interview published on the Internet on Thursday, Berlusconi said it would be the PD's fault if the government collapsed. "If two friends are in a boat and one throws the other overboard, whose fault is it if the boat sinks?" he told Tempi magazine.

"They cannot strip me of the right to speak on the political scene, they cannot strip me of the right to inspire and lead the political movement I founded, and they cannot take away my right to be the point of reference for millions of Italians," he said.

He added that he was sure his oldest daughter Marina, 47 and head of his $6.6 billion business empire, would not take his place at the head of the center right as has been suggested.

Despite the brinkmanship, analysts and doves in Berlusconi's party have warned that torpedoing the government could misfire, with the danger that Letta could form a new coalition with the help of PDL rebels and members of the populist 5-Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo.

Even if Italy went to early elections, Berlusconi would not be able to use his formidable campaigning power to the full and Letta has warned that Italians will punish anyone who causes a crisis at such a sensitive economic moment, only months after the government was formed.

(Additional reporting by Roberto Landucci and Catherine Hornby; editing by Philip Pullella and Raissa Kasolowsky)
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« Reply #104 on: September 28, 2013, 06:34:07 pm »

Italian government breaks up after Berlusconi pulls out ministers
9/28/13
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/berlusconis-ministers-resign-italian-government-172431441.html

* Berlusconi's centre-right ministers resign

* Manoeuvres start to avoid new elections

* Letta accuses Berlusconi of "huge lie"

By Catherine Hornby and Antonella Cinelli

ROME, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Italian centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi pulled his ministers out of the cabinet on Saturday, effectively bringing down the government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta and leaving the euro-zone's third-largest economy in chaos.

Talks will now start to find a parliamentary majority to back a new cabinet and avoid going back to an election just seven months after the last one.

The relentless political jockeying that has defined Letta's five-month tenure has already thwarted efforts to push through important reforms Italy needs to emerge from a two-year recession, a decade-long economic lethargy, a 2-trillion-euro public debt and youth unemployment of around 40 percent.

The resignations will delay those reforms even further
.

"So many measures we were working on now risk being set back," Italian Labour Minister Enrico Giovannini told Rai state television. "On Monday our borrowing costs are going to rise by many points."

Berlusconi's move comes a day after Letta challenged the centre-right party to support him in a confidence vote in parliament.

Late on Friday, the cabinet failed to agree vital fiscal measures to bring the budget deficit within European Union limits, leaving the fragile coalition of traditional rivals from the left and right near total breakdown.

Tensions between the two sides had been rising for weeks following moves to expel Berlusconi from parliament after his conviction for tax fraud last month.

The Friday cabinet meeting had been intended to find funding to avert an increase in sales tax from 21 percent to 22 percent. That increase, which has been fiercely opposed by Berlusconi's party, will now kick in from Tuesday.

"The decision taken by Prime Minister Enrico Letta to freeze government activities, and therefore setting off an increase in sales tax, is a serious violation of the pacts on which this government was formed," Berlusconi said in a statement on Saturday.

Letta shot back later in the evening, accusing the former prime minister of telling a "huge lie" and of using the sales tax issue as an alibi for an action motivated by his legal problems.

Lawmakers from Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party this week threatened to walk out of parliament if a Senate committee meeting on Oct. 4 voted to begin proceedings to expel their leader, who turns 77 on Sunday, under legislation that bars convicted criminals from parliament.

Some opposition politicians called for early elections, but Deputy Economy Minister Stefano Fassina, from Letta's Democratic Party, said he expected a new coalition could be formed.

"I don't see elections. We won't go to them, we will find a solution in parliament," Fassina told La7 television. "I am sure there is a majority in parliament able to avoid elections."


NEW GROUPING

Letta has a commanding majority in the lower house, and if he can gain support from a few dozen Senators among the PDL or opposition groupings such as the anti-establishment 5-Star movement, he could form a new government.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who has to either call new elections or oversee the creation of a new coalition and subsequent government, gave renewed signals on Saturday that he did not want the country to return to the polls.

"We need a parliament that discusses and works, not that breaks up every now and then," Napolitano said during a visit to Naples.

"We do not need continuous election campaigns, we need continuity of the government's actions, decisions and its measures to resolve the problems of this country," he said.

The political convulsions have increasingly worried investors, although with the European Central Bank guaranteeing stability in the markets, there has so far been less panic than seen during previous crises.

The ECB's next board meeting is on Wednesday.

Italy's borrowing costs hit a three-month high at an auction of 10-year bonds on Friday, while the premium investors demand to hold Italian government debt rather than German paper widened to about 267 basis points from under 250 at the start of the week.

"We are paying for our political instability," Labour Minister Giovannini told Rai.

As of Friday, Italy has raised around 81 percent of its funding target of 470 billion euros for the whole year.
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« Reply #105 on: November 29, 2013, 11:37:06 am »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10480623/Berlusconi-fiancee-appeals-to-Pope-for-pardon.html
Berlusconi fiancée 'appeals to Pope for pardon'

Silvio Berlusconi’s glamorous young partner says she will appeal to Pope Francis to secure the former prime minister a pardon

11/28/13


A day after he was thrown out of the Italian parliament, Silvio Berlusconi’s glamorous young girlfriend has said she will appeal to Pope Francis to secure the former prime minister a pardon.

Francesca Pascale, who at 28 is less than half the age of 77-year-old Mr Berlusconi, said she wants to explain the “tragedy” that has befallen her fiancée, after his 20-year parliamentary career was brought to a humiliating end by the vote in the Senate on Wednesday.

He was stripped of his seat as a consequence of a definitive conviction, handed down by the Supreme Court in August, for tax fraud involving his Mediaset television company.

The decision by the Senate was “a coup d’etat — how can else can one describe it?” Miss Pascale, a former shop assistant from Naples, told Corriere della Sera.

“I appeal to Pope Francis to receive me and to hear the story of Berlusconi,” she said.

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« Reply #106 on: February 28, 2014, 01:28:03 pm »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10666138/Rome-days-away-from-bankruptcy.html
Rome days away from bankruptcy

Eternal city warns it will go bust for the first time since it was destroyed by Nero

2/27/14

Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, came under pressure on Thursday as the city of Rome was on the brink of bankruptcy after parliament threw out a bill that would have injected fresh funding.

Ignazio Marino, Rome mayor, said city services like public transport would come to a halt and that he would not be a "Nero" - the Roman emperor who, legend has it, strummed his lyre as the city burnt to the ground.

Marino said that Renzi, a centre-left leader and former mayor of Florence who was only confirmed by parliament this week, had promised to adopt urgent measures to help the Italian capital at a cabinet meeting on Friday.

The newly-elected mayor faces a budget deficit of 816 million euros ($1.1 billion) and the city could be placed under administration if he does not manage to close the gap with measures such as cutting public services.

"Rome has wasted money for decades. I don't want to spend another euro that is not budgeted," Marino said, following criticism from the Northern League opposition party which helped shoot down the bill for Rome in parliament.

The draft law would have included funding for Rome from the central government budget as a compensation for the extra costs it faces because of its role as the capital including tourism traffic and national demonstrations.

Other cash-strapped cities complained it was unfair.

But Marino warned there could be dire consequences.

"We're not going to block the city but the city will come to a standstill. It will block itself if I do not have the tools for making budget decisions and right now I cannot allocate any money,"
he told the SkyTG24 news channel.

Marino said that buses may have to stop running as soon as Sunday because he only had 10 percent of the money required to pay for fuel in March.

He added: "With the money that we have in the budget right now, I can do repairs on each road in Rome every 52 years. That's not really maintenance."
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« Reply #107 on: December 03, 2016, 05:58:57 pm »

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/02/opinions/italy-referendum-preview/index.html
12/2/16
First Brexit, then Trump, now Italy faces its political shockwave

Rome (CNN)The world as we know it could come to an end this Sunday. Or it could be just another day. It depends on whom you talk to.

This weekend, Italians go to the polls to vote in a referendum on whether or not the country should amend its 1948 constitution.

The referendum is the brainchild of Matteo Renzi, Italy's energetic, 41-year-old Prime Minister. His intention is to defang the upper house of the Italian Parliament, the Senato, by cutting its numbers from 315 to 100, thus reducing its powers dramatically, making it more of a consultative assembly.

Yes, if you read to the end of the previous paragraph, you'll probably agree it sounds dull as dust. But, in the eyes of some, the consequences of a "No" vote could be catastrophic.

Proponents of the referendum say that the goal is to make the job of governing Italy less complicated. By allowing the cabinet to push through legislation in a reasonable time frame, Italy would become more efficient, productive and prosperous while simultaneously becoming less bureaucratic and bound up in red tape.

Italian politics is a noisy, messy, never-ending game of musical chairs, with plenty of motion but little forward movement. The once humming economy is anemic: according to one study, incomes for 97% of Italians haven't gone up in a decade. The country's GDP hasn't really budged since the late 1990s.

Some opponents say that the proposed reforms don't go far enough, while others fear that a weakened Senate will eliminate an important check on power.

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