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CENTRE-RIGHT MINISTERS have resigned from Italy’s fragile coalition government, unleashing a fresh political crisis after what Prime Minister Enrico Letta called a “crazy act” of encouragement by their leader Silvio Berlusconi.
All five ministers of the People of Freedom (PDL) party took the decision at Berlusconi’s urging, said Angelino Alfano, Italy’s deputy premier and PDL party secretary.
The flamboyant former prime minister had dismissed as “unacceptable” a demand by Letta on Friday for parliament to express support for the government next week, in a bid to end a crisis that has driven the bickering ruling coalition to the brink of collapse.
Letta’s government was cobbled together following a two-month stand-off after an inconclusive general election in February, and while the government has launched major reforms, it has been hobbled by the tensions.
Letta of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has won the confidence of financial markets by managing to keep together the improbable right-left coalition.
But a brewing revolt among Berlusconi’s backers boiled over on Thursday when they threatened to resign over the media mogul’s legal problems.
Vote
A Senate committee was preparing to vote on whether to eject Berlusconi, 76, from the chamber after he was sentenced to a year in prison for tax fraud, a ruling that was upheld by Italy’s top court in August.
His allies said the vote would be the ultimate consequence of a long-running left-wing plot aimed at destroying his political career.
On Friday Letta told a cabinet meeting, tasked with approving key measures to rein in the recession-hit country’s budget deficit, that no further legislation would be enacted until the political crisis was resolved.
The cabinet had convened to determine how to delay a controversial planned rise in value added tax, but the meeting ended in disarray amid the escalating tension over Berlusconi’s tax fraud conviction.
As a result, the VAT hike from 21 percent to 22 percent will go ahead, with effect from Tuesday, as economists worry that it will dampen consumption.
Encouragement
In encouraging the PDL ministers to resign, Berlusconi said they should not be “complicit in the latest vexation imposed on Italians by the left”.
He added: “The prime minister’s decision yesterday to freeze government action, thus leading to the rise in the VAT, is a serious violation of the government pact.”
Letta retorted: “To try to justify his crazy and irresponsible act, aimed fully at protecting his personal interests, Berlusconi is… using the VAT as an alibi.”
In a brief statement, he added: “Italians will recognise such a big lie… and return it to the sender.”
Sentence
Three-time premier Berlusconi, who was convicted on August 1, is to serve the sentence at home or by doing community service. But the most biting punishment for the billionaire who has dominated Italian politics in or out of power for the past two decades is that he will henceforth be ineligible for public office.
With the PDL ministers unlikely to return, the next moves on the political chessboard are uncertain. Letta could try to form another government, counting on various defections and the support of left-wing groups.
A new primarily left-wing government may have little room for manoeuvre.
Former comedian Beppe Grillo, head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movment, repeated his call for fresh elections, but these would likely result in just as great a stalemate unless the electoral law is first modified.
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Stick to primary school teaching….
@Me_a_monkey: I thought it a good article. Might have helped to show the swimsuit/ advert of the times discussed. But a bit of a harsh comment monkey.
@Me_a_monkey: I disagree. Live and let live. Do what you want and don’t be defined simply by the day job. It’s a well written humorous yet serious piece. I enjoyed it. But Special K is not really a healthy food and it’s more about marketing and how people are constantly being manipulated to part them from their hard-earned cash. A complaint to the advertising standards authority might improve things.
@Me_a_monkey: It was just far too long and too loosely written. Needs editing and cutting back.
I think all this Instagranming of ‘body positivity’ and celebrating curves etc is all very well but the reality is you’re looking at Type 2 diabetes and all that goes with it. The Special K ad and the like are nonsense but there’s a danger with embracing our curves too. All the high Street and online plus size trends are a double edged sword. There are serious health reasons that nobody is supposed to be a size 22.
@Sinead Mooney: how dare you fat shame!! FAT SHAMER! Oh wait I shouldn’t use that word. PLUS SIZED SHAMER!
Brands that sell themselves as healthy but which are actually processed junk, should be banned. Eat natural.
@Alan Currie: so that is most brands, especially those that claim low fat.
After all the are low fat, but to stop the product tasting like cardboard they’ve added more sugar…. Which turns to fat in a person’s body due to the large amount as your body trys to store the excess sugar as fat since it can’t process the large amount at once.
@Barry Somers: you’ll find most man made foods that are low sugar are high in fat, and vice versa. There’s also danger of people using fat blocker pills, which also block the good fats from getting absorbed, omega 3 + 6 etc. A lot of people now switching to ketogenic diet.
@Alan Currie: Many natural foods too, to be fair! What nature doesn’t provide are foods high in both sugar and fat.
Lol.
Life is so short. Gonna have me bacon and eggs today. Then chase the dog up a hill.
Never had ‘Special K’ in my whole life of 60ish years. Live. Love. Eat. Move.
Oh and organic oats are all the breakfast cereal you need.
@willow moon: Good for you. But as we live in a world where we have confectionary products pushed on suggestible people from all directions and sugar added to everything (even baked beans), a little pressure to be healthy is probably no harm.
Really do not understand the point of this article. I get it’s poking fun at the underlying theme of the special k marketing. Is this another article on how certain advertising body shames women? This tired notion that it’s everyone else’s job to stop hurting your feelings? I really don’t get the purpose of this article.
@mark d: I would suggest re-reading it, you might get it the second time around
@Vocal Outrage: pleas explain it for me.
@Vocal Outrage: please explain it for me.
I’m sure I’d look great in that swimsuit! Drive the men wild!
I also grew up with the Diet Coke ad. Apparently they wanted to make another ad in that style and it was banned before it was even shot. We are now in the pc world. (There’s another advert). I think if you treat people like adults they act like adults and can make up their own minds about what they want. Maybe that’s why we are all still treated like children.
@Marcia Craine: but you have no problem with those adults being given false and misleading info/data?
How do you expect them to make up their minds if they are being lied to be the food industry?
@Barry Somers: when does it become an individuals responsibility to find and disseminate information for themselves. Also if people believe everything they see in an advert they deserve to be fooled.
This example really enhances her camel toe
What’s wrong with ambition, wanting to look better and feel better. If you want to commit suicide by over eating and indulging in harmful practices, go ahead, I don’t want to be paying for your diabetes medication or gastric bypass surgery. The reality is, being overweight is unhealthy and self limiting.
@Daniel Donovan: oh oh! Snowflakes gonna get you for that comment!
Most upset person here is yourself, so far, Mark. Does that say anything to you?
I can just imagine Waterford Whispers with this one. “Woman believes a full bodied red swimsuit body shames, goes to a beach in Spain and has a meltdown.”
If anything those swimsuits went out of their way to be modest and cover all the… bits. These days you see worse on a sunny July day in Grafton Street, and skimpier swimsuits held together with a bit of string and half a handkerchief on Termonfeckin beach. Personally I never look…
have your say