Italy passes market test despite Moody’s downgrade - by Valentina Za and Lisa Jucca

Italy passed a tough market test on Friday as its three-year borrowing costs fell well below 5 per cent at an auction hours after Moody’s cut the country’s rating to two notches above junk status.

The U.S. rating agency surprised markets on Friday by lowering Italy’s sovereign debt rating to Baa2 amid persistent worries about Spain’s ability to sort out its banking problems, concerns about a Greek exit from the euro and doubts over Italy’s long-term resolve to push through much-needed reforms.

Analysts say political uncertainty ahead of elections is the main risk for Italy, where frustration with austerity measures and the country’s weak and fragmented party system is stoking anti-European sentiment and has helped the meteoric rise of the populist Five Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo.

Respected technocrat Mr. Monti, who was called in last November to pull back Italy from the edge of the cliff and avoid a Greek-style debt crisis, has said he will stand down next year.

Three-times Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has kept a low profile since being forced out to leave room for Mr. Monti, announced this week he will return to front-line politics as the centre-right candidate, further muddling the political outlook.

Note EU-Digest: "reelecting Silvio Berlusconi would mean putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank said a member of Mr. Monti's coalition".

Read more: Italy passes market test despite Moody’s downgrade - The Globe and Mail

Silvio Berlusconi resigns on his own TV channel

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi confirms his resignation in a phone interview on his own channel after the approval of a budget law. The 75-year-old billionaire, the Italian republic's longest-serving prime minister, went to see president Giorgio Napolitano after watching his support in the lower house of parliament fall well below the number required for an outright majority. His control of parliament had become a crucial element in the eurozone's raging debt crisis as investors in Italy's debt fretted over the country's ability to implement the austerity measures needed to cut its deficit.

For more: Silvio Berlusconi resigns on his own TV channel - video | World news | guardian.co.uk

Italy: Berlusconi in Last-Ditch Effort To Save Conservative Coalition - by Stacy Meichtry and Giada Zampano

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was in 11th-hour talks aimed at saving his conservative government ahead of a key parliamentary vote on Tuesday, as investors renewed pressure on the premier to step down and allow a new government to steer the country out of Europe's debt crisis.

"We will persevere," the premier said in a telephone call broadcast to a political rally, after being locked all day in his villa near Milan with key advisers and his two eldest children. The prime minister denied reports Monday that he was planning to resign and said he was convinced his government would survive
.
The premier was due to meet with at least one lawmaker in his party who has threatened to defect, according to lawmakers.

For more: Berlusconi in Last-Ditch Effort To Save Coalition - WSJ.com

Italy: Casanova reincarnated: Silvio Berlusconi 'entertained woman at Roman castle' - by Nick Squires

The prime minister already stands accused of holding "bunga bunga" sex parties at his mansion outside Milan, of sleeping with at least one prostitute at his palazzo in Rome and of hosting pool parties for topless models at his villa in Sardinia.

But he was also throwing "two or three dinners" a week at the 15th century Castello di Tor Crescenza on the outskirts of the capital, according to telephone calls which were intercepted by Milan prosecutors in the course of their investigations into his alleged payment of an under age prostitute.

The allegations further broaden the scope of Berlusconi's network of female groupies, with investigators examining whether there is any evidence of "aiding and abetting" prostitution at the castle, according to reports in the Italian press.  The wire taps suggest that the circle of young women who attended parties at Mr Berlusconi's Milan residence were jealous of the frequency of the dinners held at the castle outside Rome.

For more: Silvio Berlusconi 'entertained woman at Roman castle' - Telegraph

Italy's Senate Approves Wiretap Bill

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi advanced a draft law through the senate that restricts the use of wiretaps by prosecutors and introduces fines and prison sentences for journalists who issue reports on tapped conversations.

The draft law's passage on Thursday by the senate prompted a torrent of criticism from Italian prosecutors, newspapers and opposition lawmakers. Mr. Berlusconi, a media magnate, says the bill aims to protect the privacy of Italians. Critics say the draft legislation, which still faces a vote in the lower house of Parliament, is an attempt by Mr. Berlusconi to weaken the judiciary branch's investigative powers and muzzle criticism of the prime minister in Italian media.

"The massacre of freedom has begun," said Anna Finocchiaro, a senator in the center-left Democratic Party.

For the complete report: Italy's Senate Approves Wiretap Bill - WSJ.com

Times OnLine: Italy: Silvio Berlusconi "a troubled man" as his tax fraud trial to restart next month - by Richard Owen

For the complete report from the Times Online click on this link

Italy: Silvio Berlusconi "a troubled man" as his tax fraud trial to restart next month - by Richard Owen

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's embattled Prime Minister, is to face trial for tax fraud and false accounting next month in the first prosecution since he lost his immunity earlier this month. Since returning from a "private visit" to Russia last Friday he has been closeted at his mansion at Arcore near Milan, and is reported to be suffering from a mild form of scarlet fever contracted from one of his grandchildren. He is struggling to prevent Giulio Tremonti, the Finance Minister, from resigning over controversial tax cut propsals. Mr Tremonti is backed by the Northern League, a key ally in the centre Right coalition.

Mr Berlusconi’s approval rating has slipped from 62 per cent a year ago to 45 per cent, the lowest since his election in April 2008. But his People of Liberty party remains well ahead of led the Democratic Party in the opinion polls, and Mr Bersani's first task is to prevent liberals and left wing Catholics in the Democratic Party led by Francesco Rutelli, a former centre Left leader, from leaving to form their own movement. Mr Rutelli has said he will join forces with the UDC, a Christian Democratic party led by Pierferdinando Casini.

The buffalo bullet: You can take the boy out of the country but not the country out of the boy - Berlusconi in Italy and Tom Golisano in New York

For the complete report from The buffalo bullet click on this link

"You can take the boy out of the country but not the country out of the boy" - Berlusconi in Italy and Tom Golisano in New York - by Chris Stevensen

"So much for post-racial America. Are we there yet? Who could fathom that back in September 9 the New York Democrats would win the majority seats in the Senate 32-30, clearing the way for the first Democratic majority leader in 40 years and the first African American ever to take such a position. This saw the emergence of Smith. There was just one small problem, Smith had some ideas of his own-as all individuals do I hear-he wanted to make the Senate more open, more transparent and bipartisan according to a web bio. Powerful whites are getting enough of that today from Obama. Under Smith the new majority fired 4 men who were hired locally, as the saying goes, you can fire people but you can't fire money. Attempts to get the un-fantastic four rehired were unsuccessful, thus began the coup. At some point Tom Golisano (money) of Florida-and sometimes even New York I hear-became a Chile-Dog Democrat and began plotting with Puerto Rican American Senators Pedro Espada Jr. from the Bronx and Hiram Monserrate of Queens to break rank and join the republicans and get Dean Skelos appointed as Majority Leader. Obviously usurping Smith."

Note EU-Digest: "When you read Chris Stevensen's detailed and most interesting report one can see how much of what is happening politically in America is now also being copied in Europe. More and more Politicians are owned either by corporate or criminal money. Just take EU's member state of Italy, where you have PM Silvio Berlusconi. This is a 73 year old man leading Italy, who by his behavior has landed himself in hot water with almost all of Italy's EU partners and many world leaders. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, will not soon forget that at a recent Nato event, Mr Berlusconi kept her waiting by talking on his mobile phone with his back turned to her, or that he once taunted a German MEP by saying he was "perfect" material for a concentration camp guard.

A recent trial proved that Berlusconi had corrupted an English lawyer, Mills, to get a false testimony from him; a law masterfully crafted by Berlusconi's lacqueys only a year ago is now preventing his impeachment. Recently Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario publically announced she is asking for a divorce, and claims Berlusconi is a "sick and sexually obsessed man" and should seek help. So far Berlusconi is getting away with all this because the Italians continue to support him. Unfortunately there is no equivalent of a Bill Maher in Europe, who is able to expose all the political "hankey pankey" going on in the EU empire, or to make a statement that Berlusconi is corrupt and should be thrown out by the Italian voters."