Letta wins Italian senate’s confidence, vows reforms
14 Dec 2013 5:19 AM IST
Letta told parliament Italy had avoided reforms for 20 years and could no longer afford to delay, with protests across the country this week underlining the bitter public mood after years of painful attempts to squeeze costs and boost revenues.
‘I will do everything I can. I won’t give in to those who say the chaos is too much and we can’t do anything,’ he said, pledging to combat a growing tide of political disillusion and hostility to the European Union.
Letta, backed by the centre-left Democratic Party and smaller centrist and centre-right groups, won the vote by 173 votes to 127 following an even more comfortable victory in the Chamber of Deputies earlier on Wednesday.
The confidence votes were called to confirm Letta’s majority after centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi pulled his Forza Italia party out of the ruling coalition last month.
Letta pledged to fight ‘like a lion’ to tackle problems including youth unemployment running at more than 40 percent.
After years of recession and stagnation, the economy is now smaller than it was more than a decade ago and obstacles range from rampant corruption and a discredited political system to a level of tax evasion which the head of Italy’s tax authority said this week was incompatible with a democratic state.
On Wednesday, police shut down parts of Rome with hundreds of protesters gathering near parliament, shouting ‘Thieves! Thieves!’.
Letta said the next 18 months would be devoted to a broad package of institutional reforms aimed at creating a stable basis for economic growth which he said should reach 1 percent in 2014 and 2 percent in 2015. These targets are considered optimistic by virtually all independent forecasters. The euro zone’s third largest economy has grown by 2 percent in just one of the last 12 years.
As well as a new electoral law and measures to untangle the conflicting web of powers between different levels of the administration, Letta promised to overhaul parliament to remove the Senate’s power to vote no confidence in the government.
The upper house would become a review chamber linked to the regions instead of an exact counterweight to the lower house, removing a major cause of Italy’s chronic political stalemate.
‘I will do everything I can. I won’t give in to those who say the chaos is too much and we can’t do anything,’ he said, pledging to combat a growing tide of political disillusion and hostility to the European Union.
Letta, backed by the centre-left Democratic Party and smaller centrist and centre-right groups, won the vote by 173 votes to 127 following an even more comfortable victory in the Chamber of Deputies earlier on Wednesday.
The confidence votes were called to confirm Letta’s majority after centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi pulled his Forza Italia party out of the ruling coalition last month.
Letta pledged to fight ‘like a lion’ to tackle problems including youth unemployment running at more than 40 percent.
After years of recession and stagnation, the economy is now smaller than it was more than a decade ago and obstacles range from rampant corruption and a discredited political system to a level of tax evasion which the head of Italy’s tax authority said this week was incompatible with a democratic state.
On Wednesday, police shut down parts of Rome with hundreds of protesters gathering near parliament, shouting ‘Thieves! Thieves!’.
Letta said the next 18 months would be devoted to a broad package of institutional reforms aimed at creating a stable basis for economic growth which he said should reach 1 percent in 2014 and 2 percent in 2015. These targets are considered optimistic by virtually all independent forecasters. The euro zone’s third largest economy has grown by 2 percent in just one of the last 12 years.
As well as a new electoral law and measures to untangle the conflicting web of powers between different levels of the administration, Letta promised to overhaul parliament to remove the Senate’s power to vote no confidence in the government.
The upper house would become a review chamber linked to the regions instead of an exact counterweight to the lower house, removing a major cause of Italy’s chronic political stalemate.
Next Story
