Technocrat Mario Monti to form new Italy government

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has asked technocrat Mario Monti to form a new government, following the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Napolitano made the announcement after a day of hurried consultations with senior politicians. Monti, an ex-EU commissioner, needs a majority in parliament to implement drastic spending cuts and tax rises aimed at tackling Italy’s worsening debt crisis. Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party has said it was ready to back his nomination, depending on the new cabinet’s make-up and policies. Most other parties have backed Monti, a respected economist and former European competition commissioner, but the Northern League, Berlusconi’s coalition partner, said it wanted to know Monti’s policies first. Speaking at a news conference shortly after he was nominated for the post on Sunday evening, the 68-year-old academic said he would work “with a sense of urgency, but scrupulously” in order to pull Italy out of its crisis. “Italy must be an element of strength and not weakness within the European Union, that we helped found and in which we should be protagonists,” the BBC quoted Monti as saying. “We will aim at solving the financial situation, resume the path of growth,” he said. Minutes before the announcement at Quirinale Palace in Rome, Berlusconi issued a TV address to the nation in which he vowed to redouble his efforts in parliament to renew Italy. The 75-year-old TV magnate resigned on Saturday after MPs approved the new austerity measured demanded by the European Union to help trim Italy’s massive 1.9 trillion euro debt. On Wednesday, the interest rate on Italy's 10-year bonds soared above 7 percent, the level at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to ask for a bailout.