Italian PM Berlusconi won't seek another term in 2013

[News_Editor]

Italian PM Berlusconi won't seek another term in 2013

2011-07-09 03:23:35 GMT+7 (ICT)

ROME (BNO NEWS) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Friday he will not seek reelection when his term expires in 2013, ANSA news agency reported.

Berlusconi, 74, said he would be too old to make another bid for the premier's post when his current term ends. The premier told the daily La Repubblica that Angelino Alfano, 40, newly appointed as head of Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party, would be the centre-right candidate.

"I will campaign, and I'll help Angelino. I'll be the father figure. I will try to build up the European People's Party in Italy, but at 77 years of age I can no longer be premier," Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi, who has been hit by sex and corruption trials and recent local-election and referendum defeats, said the government was nonetheless strong and would last until 2013.

Last month, Berlusconi won a crucial confidence vote in Parliament after a series of setbacks in the nationwide referendums and local elections in Milan and Naples. Berlusconi's center-right government won the Lower House vote with a margin of 24 votes (317 to 293) and two abstentions.

Berlusconi is currently involved in four criminal cases against him, three fraud cases and one of prostitution. He is accused of paying Ruby, a Moroccan belly dancer, for sex in September 2009 when she was only 16 years old during one of the Premier's parties at his Milan villa. He claimed he never "laid a finger on her."

Prosecutors claim that the two had sex for at least 13 times when she was 17 years old. Under Italian law, using a sex worker under the age of 18 carries a jail term of up to three years.

The Prime Minister is also accused of abuse of power in the same case. Prosecutors said that Berlusconi used his influence to get Ruby after she was detained over theft accusations. The Premier said she told him he was a relative of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The abuse of office charge carries a term ranging from six to 12 years. If convicted, Berlusconi faces up to 15 years in prison. The PM has repeatedly said that the cases against him were part of a political agenda.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-07-09

[surayu]

This cancer of a man just tried to hide a law inside a larger economic plan, in which he basically cancelled the fines his private companies had to pay, been found out and publically ashamed the minister of the economy taked back the whole plan, saying he had no idea of this small addition, the same minister of the economy these days relocated his residency because it came out an ex high officer from the " financial police" was paying his rent (for the minister) of 8,500 Euros per month...and he said he DIDN'T know about it, how can these people be trusted? and they are running a country! they make me sick....

Berlusconi (the pedophile) claimed the 16 years old Ruby was the niece of Mubarack, not just a distant relative, one of the men which provided him all the females for his private orgies and had aspirations to become a senator (very likely with Berlusconi in power) has been arrested already (Mr Lele Mora).

[Puccini]

Sorry to dig up such an old topic but I cannot find any new thread about the elections of a new parliament in Italy today and Monday, 24 and 25 February 2013. Contrary to what Berlusconi said in July 2011, he is running in this year's election, seeking the premiership again.

Italian Elections: Nation Goes To Polls In Vote Seen As Crucial For Economic Future

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON and COLLEEN BARRY 02/24/13 10:47 AM ET EST

ROME -- Will Italy stay the course with painful economic reform? Or fall back into the old habit of profligacy and inertia? These are the stakes as Italians vote in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies.

Fellow European Union countries and investors are watching closely, as the decisions that Italy makes over the next several months promise to have a profound impact on whether Europe can decisively put out the flames of its financial crisis. Greece's troubles in recent years were enough to spark a series of market panics. With an economy almost 10 times the size of Greece's, Italy is simply too big a country for Europe, and the world, to see fail.

Leading the electoral pack is Pier Luigi Bersani, a former communist who has shown a pragmatic streak in supporting tough economic reforms spearheaded by incumbent Mario Monti. On Bersani's heels is Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul seeking an unlikely political comeback after being forced from the premiership by Italy's debt crisis. Monti, while widely credited with saving Italy from financial ruin, is trailing badly as he pays the price for the suffering caused by austerity measures.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/italian-elections-2013_n_2753018.html

[Puccini]

Police made short shrift of three anti-Berlusconi demonstrators, members of the Ukrainian Femen group.