BERLUSCONI SAYS HE MAY WITHDRAW HIS CANDIDACY IF MONTI STEPS IN!!!

zerohedge‏@zerohedge

If Citadel buys enough ES on behalf of the FRBNY, the Monti succession will be without a hitch

Yes. I don´t know anyone who wants the euro. But there is no party proposing a breakup of the euro.

The lack of alternatives should raise disdain a lot more than Mr. B.

all the parties have afraid of proposing it... this is unchartered territory

zerohedge‏@zerohedge

The Consensus cumulative GDP forecast since 2003 for Italy and the US is 20.5% and 15.8% below the actual outcome

I kind of wonder whether there are other reasons no one dares say officially what everyone thinks and sees.

zerohedge‏@zerohedge

MONTI SAYS MARKETS SHOULDN'T FEAR POLITICAL VACUUM IN ITALY. all about those markets

Silvio Berlusconi Has A Great Attack On Mario Monti's Obsession With 'The Spread'

Read more: [link to www.businessinsider.com]

AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD: Mario Monti's Resignation Is The Only Way To Save Italy

Read more: [link to www.businessinsider.com]

Berlusconi Is No Donald Trump — Here's Why You Have To Take Him Seriously

Read more: [link to markdow.tumblr.com]

Berlusconi shouldn’t be counted out in Italy

December 11, 2012, 12:59 PM
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Financial markets around the world are taking Italy’s latest political turmoil in stride, apparently confident that a mainstream politician committed to outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti’s technocratic vision – if not Monti himself — will prevail in early elections, leaving Silvio Berlusconi to gnash the scenery like a frustrated wrestling heel.

But investors may be a bit complacent, argues Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

Granted, Berlusconi’s People of Liberty, or PDL, party polls around 16% support, well behind the center-left Democratic Party, whose leader has pledged to maintain Monti’s reforms. But while a lot can be said about the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, “one irrefutable fact is that the former prime minister recognizes an electoral angle when he sees it,” Mellor said, in a research note.

And right now it doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that the three-time former premier “has been lured back into the ring by the glowing potential of an antiausterity platform — a platform that would give him the best chance of bridging the current chasm in the polls,” Mellor said.

Indeed, one just need to look at the attack Berlusconi launched in a television interview (and repeated on his Facebook page) mocking Monti’s call for a yield spread between Italian IT:10YR_ITA+0.18% and German DE:10YR_GER+0.55% government bonds of 287 basis points. Berlusconi railed that the “spread is a scam” and seemed to imply that the run-up in Italian borrowing costs last year was merely a ruse engineered to force his ouster and clear the way for Monti’s unelected technocratic government.
... [link to blogs.marketwatch.com]

zerohedge @zerohedge 10 min
BERSANI SAYS BETTER MONTI NOT TO RUN IN ELECTION

zerohedge @zerohedge 7 min
BERLUSCONI SAYS HE MAY WITHDRAW HIS CANDIDACY IF MONTI STEPS IN

zerohedge @zerohedge 6 min
In other news, Berlusconi has no hope of being elected anyway [link to www.zerohedge.com]

And while Mario Monti's reign is now in the past, even though a real new government will likely not take over for many months, and Berlusconi's contrarian position is quite clear, the man most likely set to replace Monti, the PD's Pier Luigi Bersani has made it clear he has every intention of continuing in his predecessor's steps. From the WSJ:


Pier Luigi Bersani, the center-left politician whom polls tip as Italy's next leader, pledged to uphold his country's economic commitments to Europe amid the debt crisis and not to dismantle key overhauls by the current government, if he is elected in a coming national vote.


"We will respect the very stringent commitments taken…and we will take them on as our own," Mr. Bersani said in an interview at a small hotel in his hometown in Italy's northern Emilia Romagna region over the weekend.

Mr. Bersani spoke hours before Prime Minister Mario Monti announced he would resign once Parliament approves the country's 2013 budget. The surprise decision means Italy is likely to hold elections as early as February, accelerating the departure of Mr. Monti's yearlong technocrat government earlier than expected and ushering in what promises to be a volatile two months of political jostling as Italy tries to return to democratic governance.

Yet while a Berlusconi government appears out of the question, what is the key risk as we explained over the weekend, is what concessions the PD will have to give in order to create a coalition government that will give it a majority vote. Because it is not the return of Silvio that is the biggest risk: it is the threat that Italy, like the US, will suddenly find itself in a gridlocked position in which it is unable to make any political decisions, until such time as the ECB chimes in.
[link to www.zerohedge.com]

interesting party landscape in italy

[link to www.businessinsider.com]

zerohedge @zerohedge 2 min
BERLUSCONI SAYS ITALY-GERMANY BOND SPREAD IS 'SCAM'
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zerohedge @zerohedge 3 min
BERLUSCONI SAYS 'COLOSSAL LIE' TO SAY HE BROUGHT ITALY TO BRINK
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zerohedge @zerohedge 4 min
BERLUSCONI SAYS HE'S ENVIOUS OF POWER MONTI HAS IN GOVT. So .... he is not withdrawing?

Thnx for updates Luis!

zerohedge @zerohedge 4 min
BERLUSCONI SAYS ITALY ECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS MUCH WORSE NOW

zerohedge @zerohedge 11 min
BERLUSCONI SAYS HE TRIED TO CHANGE NAME OF PDL TO FORZA ITALIA