Mr. Monti, 68, a respected economist who has promised to be a steady hand in a time of market turbulence, said he expected to move ahead as soon as he secured a parliamentary majority for the new government.
Assembling a majority usually requires days or weeks of talks, but Italy does not have the luxury of time. Skeptical investors have pushed the country’s borrowing costs to dangerous heights, putting at risk the euro currency that 17 nations share. The crisis forced the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday, turning Italy’s most complex political shift in nearly two decades into one of its most urgent transitions.
President Giorgio Napolitano, who as the head of state must approve the formation of a new government, gave a tough speech on Sunday aimed at reassuring investors about Italy’s commitment to the euro and warning the nation’s insular political class about the stakes involved. He called on lawmakers to form a broad coalition in support of Mr. Monti that would be able to push through urgent economic measures.
News media reports said that Mr. Monti initially sought to include figures from the major parties in his cabinet in an effort to share the political cost of the government’s program, including unpopular austerity measures. But while most major parties were prepared to back his government, few were willing to join it. The new cabinet is now expected to consist mainly of technical experts rather than politicians.
Mr. Napolitano, who met with leaders from across the political spectrum on Sunday to gather pledges of support, said in his speech that “it is a responsibility we perceive from the entire international community to protect the stability of the single currency as well as the European frame work.” He added that Italy understood how its actions would affect “the prospects for the recovery of the world economy.”
Italy must repay or refinance almost 200 billion euros, about $276 billion, worth of maturing bonds by April 2012. Last week, the political turmoil drove the effective yields on Italy’s bonds to 7.4 percent, a level at which other countries in the euro zone have sought bailouts. If Italy is forced to continue to pay such high rates to borrow, it will have difficulty in handling its debt load, which is among the highest in Europe.
The president’s remarks were widely seen as directed mainly at Mr. Berlusconi’s political party, the People of Liberty, which said earlier on Sunday that it would accept a Monti government, but only for a limited time before going to early elections.
Angelino Alfano, the secretary of the People of Liberty and Mr. Berlusconi’s political heir apparent, acknowledged on national television on Sunday that there was opposition to a Monti government within his party. But he confirmed that the party would back Mr. Monti if certain conditions were met concerning the composition of the cabinet and the how long the government would last before elections.
Mr. Monti declined to say how long he hoped to govern. News media reports suggested that he was aiming to remain in office until the end of the current legislature’s term in 2013. Mr. Monti said he would act “with a sense of urgency, but also with care” in forming a new government; he is expected to present his cabinet and program to Parliament in a few days.
As for his broad goals, he said his government would try to restore the country to financial health and growth without compromising “social equity.”
“We owe it to our children to give them a dignified and hopeful future,” he said.
Not one to be upstaged, Mr. Berlusconi spoke publicly on Sunday evening for the first time since his resignation, vowing in a video that was broadcast on television to redouble his efforts in Parliament to save the country and the euro.
Pale and visibly tired, Mr. Berlusconi called his resignation “an act of generosity” that was carried out with a “sense of responsibility” for Italy, and he said he had been insulted by his jeering critics.
He quoted wistfully from a speech he delivered when he first ran for office in 1994, praising Italy and its promise of freedom. “Mine was and remains a declaration of love for Italy,” Mr. Berlusconi said. “That love remains unchanged.”
In his video address, Mr. Berlusconi called on the European Central Bank to expand its role in shoring up the euro, arguing that the debt crisis extended far beyond Italy.
For their part, European leaders had come to see Mr. Berlusconi as a liability both to Italy and to the single currency after his government repeatedly fell short on promises of fiscal and economic reform. Mr. Berlusconi resigned after Parliament finally approved a package of austerity and growth measures but denied him the majority support he needed to remain in office.
The Berlusconi government had been shadowed in recent years by sex scandals surrounding the prime minister. Mr. Monti attended Mass with his wife on Sunday morning in the Roman Catholic Church of Sant’Ivo in the historic center of Rome.
Many Italians awoke on Sunday to what they felt was a new day in Italian politics, even if many did not quite believe that Mr. Berlusconi, a fixture of public life here for nearly two decades, was really gone. Some young Italians, who increasingly feel shut out by a labor market that protects older workers, considered his departure to be good sign.
“We’ve been following what happened since the summer with growing concern,” said Laura Calderoni, 36, an architect in Rome. “The government’s complete immobility, deafness and incapability to understand reality and act accordingly was very scary.”
She added: “We are part of the brain-drain generation, but I kept on telling all my friends, ‘Don’t flee; it will be over.’ A fairer country starts with citizens like us that build their lives here and believe in it.”
Others said that Italy’s problems did not begin with Mr. Berlusconi and would not end with Mr. Monti.
“I just think that Berlusconi is not the root of all our economic evil,” said Anna Costeri, 43, a dental hygienist from Sardinia who was visiting Rome and said she had voted for a right-wing party in the past. Referring to Mr. Monti’s background, she said, “I am not that hopeful that someone so close to rating agencies and the banks can do our best interest.”
Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/world/europe/mario-monti-asked-to-form-a-new-government-in-italy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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