MBR Issue 26 Dec- LOW RES (1)

Malta Business Review
PERSPECTIVE
ITALY REFERENDUM LATEST …
From demolition man to demolished, by Giulia Paravicini
Matteo Renzi announces his resignation during a press conference
| Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images[Frontex]
Resigning as PM is not enough for some
members of his party.
ROME — After Matteo Renzi announced
his resignation as prime minister of Italy,
following voters’ rejection of his proposed
constitutional changes, many — even
within his own ranks — now wonder if he’s
still fit to lead the center Left.
By calling the referendum, Renzi hoped to
consolidate power and heal a split that’s
bedeviled the Democratic Party (PD) since
its inception in 2007. Instead, he has
further fractured the party, which isn’t
even able to agree on whether he should
keep the reins or resign as chairman.
The outcome of Sunday’s vote, widely seen
as a referendum on Renzi’s government,
suggests that the prime minister and
his party have lost voters to the antiestablishment
5Star Movement as well as
minor parties on both the Right and Left.
Renzi’s opponents won 60 percent of the
vote and 17 out of Italy’s 20 regions. High
voter turnout of more than 68.5 percent
made it an even more conclusive defeat
for the former mayor of Florence.
The Democratic Party of Renzi
Renzi may be paying the price for an original
sin: hijacking the PD as an outsider. Several
party elders, who openly campaigned
against Renzi, are now demanding his
resignation as head of the PD, accusing
him of having fomented divisions.
“First of all Renzi needs to resign as party
secretary and allow the PD to choose
its new leadership,” Luigi Manconi, a
PD senator, told POLITICO. “Then the
Democratic Party will have to rethink
its position and its political and cultural
identity. Because of him, we lost teachers,
blue-collar workers and trade unions
along the way.”
Several critics within the party say Renzi
surrendered core PD values, such as
social justice and defending workingclass
interests, to pursue his own political
agenda. They even have a term for it:
“PDR, the Democratic Party of Renzi.”
“He transformed a referendum into a
plebiscite, and tragically damaged the
party in so doing,” said Paolo Corsini, a PD
member. “But the truth is he lost, not the
party. And so he has to go.”
MEANWHILE…
Italian President Sergio Mattarella on
Monday asked Matteo Renzi to delay
his resignation as prime minister until
the country’s 2017 budget has been
adopted.
ITALY REFERENDUM REACTIONS …
European Greens: “Not a vote against
Europe but against Renzi.”
Marine Le Pen said the result was a
rejection of the “absurd politics of
ultra-austerity.” (Renzi argues against
austerity, in fact).
Eurogroup: No sympathy from finance
ministers, who insisted that Italy
isn’t doing enough to meet its deficit
reduction commitments.
Markets: Italy’s ailing Monte dei Paschi
bank is staring down the barrel of a €5
billion “precautionary” recapitalization,
for which it currently lacks an anchor
investor, reports POLITICO’s Morning
Exchange. The bottom line: the bank is
still at risk of failing.
EUROPE’S BLURRED LINES BETWEEN
POPULISM AND MAINSTREAM:
Normally it’s populists who want
radical change and cast themselves as
outsiders. But in Austria, the populist,
far-right Freedom Party has been at
the center of political debate for 60
years. Matthew Karnitschnig on the
increasingly upside-down world of
European politics.
This is a hammer blow to the euro
and the pro-EU establishment
Responding to Italian referendum result
and resignation of Mr Renzi, UKIP MEP
UKIP MEP Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage said:
“This is a hammer blow to the euro and
the pro-EU establishment who have
given the Italian people more poverty,
unemployment and less security
because of mass immigration.
The EU is lurching from one crisis to
another.
Quick elections look necessary so
that the Italian people would have
the opportunity to get rid of their
pro-EU establishment.” MBR
Creditline: POLITICO SPRL; EU/EP; UKIP
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