The future of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is increasingly in doubt after being pressured to step down as Italy’s borrowing costs surged to record highs since the formation of the single currency.
The Italian 10-year government bond yield spread hit its widest levels since 1997 against the German bund today and the euro is under pressure.
Berlusconi’s government faces a parliamentary vote on Tuesday with rebels threatening to bring down his government over its failure to adopt structural reforms. Several of his once-faithful party members have threatened to vote against the government or abstain from voting on Tuesday during a scheduled ballot on budget matters in the Italian lower house of Parliament.
Two Berlusconi allies have already defected to the opposition party last week. Six others called for Berlusconi to resign and seek a broader coalition, Italian newspaper Repubblica reported yesterday.
“I fear we no longer have a majority in parliament,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on a talk show yesterday. Maroni, a member of the Northern League party, part of the prime minister’s coalition, said he backs early elections.
As Berlusconi loses majority backing, opposition leaders are also trying to gather support for a no- confidence vote, regardless of the outcome of tomorrow’s ballot, to try to topple the leader who has governed for more than half of the 17 years since he entered politics in 1994. Berlusconi has faced only one such vote, which he survived, in December of last year.
Berlusconi issued a statement today saying he denies any resignation reports and refuses to step down.
By clicking “Continue”, you agree to the default cookie settings on our website.
Trading Point uses cookies to ensure that we provide you with the best experience while visiting our website. Some of the cookies are needed to provide essential features, such as login sessions, and cannot be disabled. Other cookies help us improve our website’s performance and your experience through personalising content, providing social media features and analysing our traffic. Such cookies may also include third-party cookies, which might track your use of our website. You may change your cookie settings at any time.
Read more, or change your cookie settings.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small data files. When you visit a website, the website sends the cookie to your computer. Your computer stores it in a file located inside your web browser.
Cookies do not transfer viruses or malware to your computer. Because the data in a cookie does not change when it travels back and forth, it has no way to affect how your computer runs, but they act more like logs (i.e. they record user activity and remember stateful information) and they get updated every time you visit a website.
We may obtain information about you by accessing cookies, sent by our website. Different types of cookies keep track of different activities. For example, session cookies are used only when a person is actively navigating a website. Once you leave the website, the session cookie disappears.
Why are cookies useful?
We use functional cookies to analyse how visitors use our website, as well as track and improve our website’s performance and function. This allows us to provide a high-quality customer experience by quickly identifying and fixing any issues that may arise. For example, we might use cookies to keep track of which website pages are most popular and which method of linking between website pages is most effective. The latter also helps us to track if you were referred to us by another website and improve our future advertising campaigns.
Another use of cookies is to store your log in sessions, meaning that when you log in to the Members Area to deposit funds, a "session cookie" is set so that the website remembers that you have already logged in. If the website did not set this cookie, you will be asked for your login and password on each new page as you progress through the funding process.
In addition, functional cookies, for example, are used to allow us to remember your preferences and identify you as a user, ensure your information is secure and operate more reliably and efficiently. For example, cookies save you the trouble of typing in your username every time you access our trading platform, and recall your preferences, such as which language you wish to see when you log in.
Here is an overview of some of the functions our cookies provide us with:
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses analytical cookies placed on your computer, to help the website analyze a user's use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) may be transmitted to and stored by Google on their servers. Google may use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other services related to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties, where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held. By using this website, you give your consent to Google to process data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
Change Settings
Please select which types of cookies you want to be stored on your device.
We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.
Read more or change your cookie settings.