[5]Just under a year ago, in early November 2011, the ECB specifically made it a very clear prerogative that it would not buy Italian bonds under the SMP program, or in any other way seek to lower Italian bond yields, which promptly soared to all time highs, as long as the intransigent Silbio Berlusconi, then career PM, remained in his position as head of Italy. A few days after Italian bonds soared, Silvio quietly and reluctantly stepped down, paving the way for that other Goldmanite - unelected technocrat Mario Monti to take over the reins. We are now just over two months until the one year anniversary of the historic Berlusconi ouster by a central bank (whose head amusingly wrote an Op-ed in a leftist German publication that his organization is apolitical; just as the Fed is apolitical until Wall Street darling Chuck Schumer tells Bernanke to "get to work Mr. Chairman"), and suddenly Silvio is back in the picture. As Italian daily Repubblica notes, the former PM "fears the repercussions of a conviction in the Ruby process before the vote" currently scheduled for 2013, and as a result Berlusconi would agree to sign off on a plan to reform the electoral law in the next few days on the condition that early elections will be held in November. Whether or not this means that Silvio is seeking to retain his PM throne, or merely to regain prosecutorial immunity from engaging in various questionable activities (mostly of a sexual nature) is unknown, but the fact that the Italian political theater may regain its old tragicomic luster has us smiling at the prospect of what the end of 2012 has to offer, especially since America's own presidential election will culminate at about the same time.
From Repubblica [6], google translated:
BERLUSCONI asking for votes in November. "We have no choice, 2013 is too far away, prosecutors persecute me, the judges want to condemn me before the election campaign." The acceleration mature within 24 hours.
Couple under a blanket of marsh apparent in the negotiations between PDL and PD on the electoral law. Takes shape in the fort of Palazzo Grazioli, where the Knight rushes from Sardinia emergency calling to report her: Alfano, Verdini, Ghedini, Bonaiuti. And here's the twist: you have to hurry, immediately approve the reform.
The leader - and the news that the lawyer of former Prime Minister leads to the War Cabinet - looms the very real risk of a conviction at first instance in November and December. The ax of the Ruby process. The curse that haunts him. The nightmare of a campaign to be conducted from January to March, presidential candidate of the Council, with the burden of a judgment fatal to those infamous crimes.
Take a short time, the hawks sitting in the living room of Via del Plebiscito, to understand that the only train passes now to avoid catastrophe. Approve the electoral law in a few days, even under the conditions of the opponents of the Democratic Party, provided that the resignation convince Monti and Napolitano to anticipate the vote in November. It is a sudden change of perspective.