Berlusconi resigns, Italians celebrate

The Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, formalized on Saturday night (12th) his resignation. The resignation was delivered to the president, Giorgio Napolitano. In Rome, Italians celebrated in front of the presidential palace the end of the prime minister's occupation of his office.

Berlusconi, who has failed to ensure a parliamentary majority in a crucial vote last Tuesday (15th), promised to resign if the Parliament approved the law, required by European partners to restore market confidence in the battered public finances in Italy.

The resignation opens space for the formation of a new emergency government. Napolitano announced that Mario Monti will give the task to head the office in a context of financial crisis, which causes an emergency across the eurozone.

The proposed revenue to address the crisis that Monti is willing to implement, as a man of confidence of the European Union, will result in more crunch for workers and all the Italian people and further undermine the country's sovereignty.

With a debt of more than 120% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and more than a decade of sluggish economic growth, the country is at the heart of the debt crisis of the euro area and is too big for the currency bloc to help it.

Silvio Berlusconi said he was always been against the war against Libya, but in the true cowardly manner of an unprincipled scoundrel with a scandalous lifestyle, his excuse was that his "hands were tied" once the U.N. authorized a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians. He didn't do his tarnished image any good by admitting his lack of moral integrity and cowardice.

To trim the enormous costs of the war he played into, despite grave economic problems for the country, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said the aircraft carrier Garibaldi would be replaced by a smaller ship, freeing up nearly 1,000 military personnel. He said the drawdown would cut Italy's expenditures in the Libya operation from $204 million for just the first three months of the mission to $83 million through September.

With agencies

Translated from the Portuguese version and appended by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru