Mario Monti Tapped to Lead Italy Out of Debt Crisis
A day after accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,
Italy’s president on Sunday asked Mario Monti, a former European Commissioner,
to form a government charged with helping defend Italy from Europe’s sovereign
debt crisis.
President Giorgio Napolitano formally tapped Mr. Monti on Sunday evening after a
day of meetings with political leaders across the spectrum, almost all of whom
had pledged their support for a government of technocrats to guide Italy into
its post-Berlusconi future.
But in a sign of political wrangling to come, the leader of Mr. Berlusconi’s
People of Liberty party said on Sunday that the party would support a Monti
government only for as long as it could fulfill its reform mandate. The party
had been pushing for early elections, while media reports say Mr. Monti hopes to
serve until the end of the current legislature in 2013.
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