Italy: Foreigners commit 44% of sexual violence cases in Italy, half of gang rapes, while only representing 9% of population

Remix

Data from Italy’s Interior Ministry for 2024 shows that foreigners commit nearly half of all rapes, while only representing 9 percent of the country’s resident population. Specifically, the graph shows they are arrested in 44 percent of cases.

The troubling data, which was cited by Italian journalist Francesca Totolo, also shows that when it comes to gang rapes, “50 percent of perpetrators were foreigners.”

The situation is reportedly “even more of an emergency” when analyzing data concerning minors. 

In 2023, 56 percent of the arrests and reports for the crime of sexual violence concerned minor foreigners.

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Mossad 'in contact from very beginning' with killers of Italian PM, reporter reveals

Kit Klarenberg, Wyatt Reed | The Grayzone

 

A roving reporter who covered Italy's top politicians explains to The Grayzone how his country was reduced to a joint US-Israeli "aircraft carrier," and raises troubling questions about an Israeli role in the killing of Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

For years, Israel's Mossad monitored and secretly influenced a violent communist faction that carried out the March 16, 1978 kidnapping and murder of Italian statesman Aldo Moro, veteran investigative journalist Eric Salerno has documented.

Having worked closely alongside multiple Italian heads of state during his 30-year career as a correspondent, Salerno published an expose of their secret relationship with Israeli intelligence in 2010 called Mossad Base Italy.

The reporter told The Grayzone that Moro, who was arguably Italy's most important leader, became a thorn in the side of powerful forces who sought to keep his country firmly lodged in the pro-Western bloc. Salerno believes Italy's long-term foreign policy would have developed differently if Moro had survived, adding, "that's what they were afraid of in the United States."

Moro was kidnapped in 1979 by the radical Brigate Rosse, or Red Brigades faction, in a daring and highly-professional daytime operation which left all but one of his bodyguards dead. He was executed two months later. The still-unresolved case shocked the nation, and remains a deeply unsettling chapter in the period of intelligence intrigues and political terrorism known by Italians as The Years of Lead.

For some of Italy's most knowledgeable sources, the crimes bore strong similarities to those of Operation Gladio, a covert effort which saw the CIA, MI6 and NATO train and direct a shadow army of fascist paramilitary units across Europe that carried out false flag terror attacks, robberies, and assassinations aimed at neutralizing the socialist left. 

 

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Countries Around The World Are Bringing Gold Home

Zero Hedge

European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi recently announced that the ECB would be required to approve any management of gold reserves within the euro zone countries. The statement was specifically directed at two Italian members.

Why was Italy singled out? According to the Wall Street Journal, Italian citizens are preparing to take control of Italy’s gold reserves. During the past few years, a multitude of small investors lost billions of dollars due to the failure of several Italian banks. The Bank of Italy is seen as an elitist, inefficient entity indifferent to the needs of ordinary people. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio is leading the attack against Italy’s central bank, along with the “5 Star Movement” and the nationalist “League,” all of whom blame the countries financial woes on the incompetence of the central bank.

The 5 Star Movement is asking Italy’s Parliament to approve measures that would allow private banks to sell their share in The Bank of Italy at 1930’s prices. Taking it a step further, they are also demanding that ownership of the Bank of Italy’s 2,451.8 tons of gold be taken over by the country’s citizens and spent on populist policies. The current value of these gold reserves is $102 billion.

If these laws are passed, investors would be able to sell gold and greatly deplete the central bank’s reserves. As Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy states, “The gold belongs to the Italians, not the bankers.” 

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Investigation begins into death of model who testified at Berlusconi trial

 Imane Fadil

 

The Irish Times

Italian magistrates said on Friday they had opened an investigation into possible murder after the mysterious death of a Moroccan model who was a regular guest at former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” parties.

Imane Fadil (33) died on March 1st a month after being admitted to a Milan hospital with severe stomach pains. At the time she told friends and her lawyer that she had been poisoned.

Her death was only reported on Friday.

“The doctors have not identified with any certainty any pathology which can explain the death,” Milan chief prosecutor Francesco Greco told Reuters, adding that there were “several anomalies” in Ms Fadil’s medical records.

Ms Fadil testified at the 2012 trial of Mr Berlusconi, who was accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

She told the court one of the parties at the media magnate’s home involved young women, sometimes in pairs, wearing nuns’ costumes and stripping off while performing raunchy pole dances.

“They started to dance like the nuns of the film Sister Act, and then they took off their clothes,” she said. At another party, a woman in her underwear stripped for Mr Berlusconi wearing a mask with the face of footballer Ronaldinho, she said.

Mr Berlusconi was initially convicted in the case but ultimately acquitted after a judge ruled he could not have known the underage prostitute was in fact a minor.

However, magistrates subsequently laid new charges against Mr Berlusconi and other defendants, accusing them of bribing some of the women who attended the parties to keep them from telling the truth at the initial trial.

They have denied the accusations.

Ms Fadil was never accused of taking bribes. Italian newspapers reported that she was writing a book about her experiences and that the magistrates had obtained a copy of the manuscript following her death. – Reuters

Italy bans unvaccinated children from school

Comment: Creeping Nanny state fascism in full flow

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BBC News

Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated.

The deadline follows months of national debate over compulsory vaccination.

Parents risk being fined up to €500 (£425; $560) if they send their unvaccinated children to school. Children under six can be turned away. 


The new law came amid a surge in measles cases – but Italian officials say vaccination rates have improved since it was introduced.

Under Italy’s so-called Lorenzin law – named after the former health minister who introduced it – children must receive a range of mandatory immunisations before attending school. They include vaccinations for chickenpox, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella.

Children up to the age of six years will be excluded from nursery and kindergarten without proof of vaccination under the new rules.

Those aged between six and 16 cannot be banned from attending school, but their parents face fines if they do not complete the mandatory course of immunisations.

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France Recalls Envoy From Rome After Italian Deputy PM Meets 'Yellow Vests'

Sputnik

The standoff between Rome and Paris started after Italian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Five Star Movement Luigi Di Maio met with Christophe Chalençon, one of the "yellow vests" leaders.

"For several months France has been the subject of repeated accusations, unfounded attacks and outlandish claims", the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that such criticism was "unprecedented" since the end of World War II.

"All these moves create a grave situation that questions the intentions of the Italian government and its bilateral relations with France. In light of this unprecedented situation, the French government has decided to recall the ambassador of France in Italy for consultations", a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry added.

Di Maio has supported the French protestors, saying following a meeting with the "yellow vests", that the "winds of change" had crossed the Alps. 

In response, Paris called the meeting "a new provocation" by the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, stressing that such moves are "not acceptable between neighbouring countries and partners in the European Union".

The "yellow vests" rallies, triggered by fuel price hikes last November, are still ongoing, with almost 60,000 reportedly participating in mass protests in France during the first weekend of February.

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READ MORE: 'A New Europe is Being Born': Senior Italian Officials Hail Yellow Vests

After Greece, Now a Coup d’Etat in Italy!

Giulietto Chiesa
Global Research

Italian President Mattarella leaves the Constitution and prevents the formation of the 5Stelle-Lega Government

This opens an unprecedented crisis in post-WWII political history in Italy. A crisis that can be defined as “European”, because it says something unequivocal: that the majority of the Italian electorate deems it necessary to change the politics of Europe, to change Europe as it is. Stop. Nothing more, but also nothing less.

And the outcome – provisional, completely provisional – says that the Italian ruling class, the one that led the country to the current crisis, the public debt over € 2.300 billion, six million poor families, youth unemployment to 50 % in the south, the disaster of social services, wild privatization, stagnation, generalized precariousness, not only does not intend to leave, but relies on the blackmail of the “markets” and claims that it has the best of the popular vote.

Interpreter of this “strange idea” was the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who explicitly explained his thoughts. Violating article 1 of the Constitution, on which he swore, that sounds unequivocal:

“Sovereignty belongs to the people”.

The “excuse” choice was the nomination of Paolo Savona as minister of Economy. The professor was “accused” by Mattarella to want the Euro exit. The accusation was totally unfounded, as he informed interested parties with a statement by the unequivocal words:

“I just fight for a stronger and juster Europe”.

It was not enough. Mattarella did not make any secret of his alarmist and alarmed thoughts: a government with this minister would still be a negative sign for Europe. And therefore, better prevent the formation of the government that run this risk.

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Obama Pockets $3.2 Million For Speaking Gig In Milan

Zero Hedge

 

President Obama, the preeminent crusader against the evils of Wall Street, took some heat from his Progressive pals a few weeks ago when it emerged that as his first paid speech appearance he would receive $400,000 for roughly an hour of his time from, well, Wall Street, or rather Cantor Fitzgerald.

But the irony didn't end there.  In an effort to combat the public outcry, the beloved former President defended his efforts by arguing that the decision to take $400,000 from Cantor Fitzgerald couldn't possibly mean that he's a sellout because, well, he already sold out to Wall Street during his initial Presidential campaign back in 2008.  You can't sell out again if you've already sold out before...come on people, it doesn't work that way.  Here is part of his actual statement:

"With regard to this or any speech involving Wall Street sponsors, I'd just point out that in 2008, Barack Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history - and still went on to successfully pass and implement the toughest reforms on Wall Street since FDR."

But, according to the Express, the $400,000 fee from Cantor is nothing compared to the $3.2 million that President Obama got for his speech in Milan at the Seeds and Chips gathering in Milan today, a conference on the impact that technology, innovation and climate change will have on food availability and production worldwide.

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See also:  Obama Talks about himself 216 times during $3 million Italy speech

Claims of sex orgies, prostitution and porn videos shake Catholic Church in Italy

Religion News Service

ROME (RNS) Lurid accusations of priests involved in sex orgies, porn videos and prostitution have emerged from several parishes in Italy recently, sending shock waves all the way to the Vatican and challenging the high standards that Pope Francis has demanded of clergy.

In the southern city of Naples, for example, a priest was recently suspended from the parish of Santa Maria degli Angeli over claims he held gay orgies and used internet sites to recruit potential partners whom he paid for sex.

The allegations concerning the Rev. Mario D’Orlando were brought to the attention of the diocese when an anonymous letter was sent to a Naples bishop. D’Orlando denied the charges when he was summoned by the city’s archbishop, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, but is now facing a formal inquiry conducted by local church officials.

“He has been removed from his position while the investigation is underway,” a spokesman for the cardinal told Religion News Service. “I have no further comment.”

In the northern city of Padua, a 48-year-old priest, the Rev. Andrea Contin, is facing defrocking as well as judicial proceedings amid accusations he had up to 30 lovers, some of whom he took to a swingers’ resort in France.

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Italy referendum: ‘People don’t trust establishment, want more radical changes’

RT

Italian PM Renzi's defeat in Sunday's referendum, similar to Brexit and Trump’s surprise win, show that people are not happy with their government’s performance, don’t trust the elite and want more radical reforms, says Italian journalist, Marcello Foa. 

 

The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced his resignation on Sunday, following a substantial loss in the referendum on constitutional reform.

With a turnout of around 70 percent, the final results of the poll show the No camp with almost 60 per cent support, while Yes trailed with just 40.

The referendum was Renzi's initiative. He had proposed reforms hoping to make Italy's parliament more stable, and to simplify the decision-making process.

“I believe that this vote, this strong result …is a vote against the government basically,” says Italian journalist Anna Mazzone. “This was a very conservative vote,” she said, adding that the majority of Italians decided not to change the constitution “according to the line, according to the thought, according to the politics of Matteo Renzi.”

“That is why he resigned, because, as he said yesterday, all this has been his own responsibility,” she added.

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Italian Banks on the Brink

Daily Reckoning
BY JAMES RICKARDS

[Ed. Note: Jim Rickards latest New York Times best seller, The Road to Ruin: The Global Elites’ Secret Plan for the Next Financial Crisis (claim your free copy here) goes beyond the election and prepares you for the next crisis]

There’s an old saying: “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” The meaning is obvious — if you insist on something for others, you have to be prepared to hold yourself to the same standard.

A version of that is playing out in Europe today. And right now the strongest signal is not coming from Germany — it’s coming from Italy. Italian banks are in deep financial distress (as were banks in Cyprus and Greece from 2011 to 2015). This involves the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Sienna (BMP), the world’s oldest bank still in operation, founded in 1472.

Monte Paschi’s trouble began in 2007 when it agreed to buy another Italian-based bank, Banca Antonveneta SpA. It offered 9 billion euros in an all-cash deal just as the global financial crisis was unfolding. The deal proved a disaster for Monte Paschi. It damaged its ability to withstand losses following the 2008 crisis.

Then investment bankers stepped in and sold Monte Paschi derivatives contracts that ended up hiding the bank’s surging losses from regulators. These deals only weakened the bank’s shaky finances.

BMP’s derivatives blew up because they made losing bets on the value of Italy’s country’s government bonds. The bank has suffered 15 billion euros in losses since 2009 and seen its stock fall 99%.

BMP was the only major bank to fail the European Central Bank’s (ECB) recent stress tests. It was required to raise capital as a result. The efforts to raise capital have been led by JP Morgan and a syndicate including Goldman Sachs and some Chinese banks. JP Morgan won out over a rival plan by veteran Italian banker Corrado Passera.

The plan called for selling about 28 billion euros ($31 billion) in bad loans and raising 5 billion euros in new capital. But reports suggest that the capital raising effort has not gone according to plan.

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Deutsche Bank requests €150 billion bailout to EU banks

Alex Christoforou
The Duran

Italy's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, fired shots at Germany's financial EU hegemony when, during a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, said:

"If this non-performing loan problem is worth one, the question of derivatives at other banks, at big banks, is worth one hundred. This is the ratio: one to one hundred."

Renzi was referring to the massive, trillions of derivatives Deutsche Bank is carrying on its books. According to Renzi, Italy may have issues, but "other" European banks have much bigger problems.

Zerohedge provides context on Italy's banking woes..

In the aftermath of Brexit, much of the investing public's attention has turned to Italian banks which are in desperate need of a bailout as a result of €360 billion in bad loans growing worse by the day (and not a bail-in, as European regulations mandate, as that would lead to an immediate bank run) to avoid a freeze and/or collapse of Italy's banking sector. This has pushed stock prices - and default risk - on Italian banks to record levels. So far Italy's bailout requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears, as Germany's political leaders have resisted Renzi's recurring pleas for a taxpayer funded rescue. However, as we have alleged, and as the Italian Prime Minister admitted last week, the core risk for Europe is not just the Italian banking sector but the biggest bank of all in Europe: Deutsche Bank.

While we are just coming off the roller coaster ride that was the UK referendum, the European Union is about to go through another nausea inducing ride where not one, but two, very big EU players are about to get hammered. The messenger of more bad EU news, David Folkerts-Landau, the chief economist of Deutsche Bank, who has called for a multi-billion dollar bailout for European banks.

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CITI: Italian Referendum Bigger Risk to Europe Than Brexit

Breitbart

 

Analysts at Citi have called a probable Italian referendum on constitutional reform next fall “the single biggest risk on the European political landscape this year,” bigger even than Brexit.

In the midst of much hand-wringing over the possible consequences of the recent UK decision to detach itself from the European Union, Citi is saying that more serious dangers loom large on the horizon; namely upcoming referendums in Hungary and Italy.

In a memo titled “Global Economics View: Who’s Next? EU Political Risks After the Brexit Vote,” Tina Fordham, Citi’s chief global political analyst, informed clients that Italy’s referendum poses a higher risk for EU stability than the Brexit vote.

“Hungary (on EU refugee quotas) and Italy (on constitutional reform) will likely have referendums in H2 2016. The latter is probably the single biggest risk on the European political landscape this year among non-UK issues, as PM [Matteo] Renzi’s political future may be tied to the outcome of the referendum,” the memo reads.

Citi said that despite rising Euroscepticism across many countries, it does not expect any other In/Out referendums in an EU country in the near-term. In most EU countries electorates do not have the power to directly trigger EU referendums and those with the power to do so (usually Parliaments) “appear unlikely to use it,” Citi said, although “in an environment of diminishing trust in elites, the temptation to seek political legitimacy through referendums is tempting.”

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Italy's Anti-Establishment 5-Star Movement Delivers Dramatic Victories In Key Mayoral Races

Zero Hedge

Until now, Italy's 5-Star Movement has been viewed a protest and opposition party, however a second round of mayoral elections on Sunday changed that.

As we reported earlier this month, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement candidates in the key cities of Rome and Turin had advanced to the second round of voting in each mayoral race. In Rome, the largest stage for voters to show displeasure with politics as usual under Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, residents were seeking new leadership to put an end to the recent turmoil which included corruption allegations, poor management, and political upheaval. On Sunday, voters in Italy's capital decided quite definitively that it was time to move in a new direction.

5-Star Movement candidate Virginia Raggi, a 37-year old lawyer, was elected Rome's first female mayor by winning a stunning 67% of the vote in the second round. Raggi trounced Roberto Giachetti (Prime Minister Renzi's Democratic Party candidate) who took down just 33% of the vote the WSJ reports. The election of an anti-establishment 5-Star Movement candidate is a statement in itself, however by taking 67% of the vote over Renzi's candidate, a resounding message has been sent that the voters want change.

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Thousands of Italians, Spaniards Protest Against NATO War Games in Europe

Sputnik

Thousands of citizens took to the streets in Spain and Italy in protest of NATO’s destabilization policies in which their countries are involved, Contra Magazin wrote.

Activists demonstrated against the NATO’s "2015 Trident Juncture" military exercise in particular.

In the Italian city of Naples, the protesters carried signs demanding the dissolution of NATO. In the Spanish capital of Madrid, NATO opponents marched carrying anti-war posters and shouting "No to NATO, bases out", "imperialism is terrorism" and "Yankees go home".

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Swiss Guard veteran claims existence of 'gay network' at the Vatican

Claims have been made of a 'gay network' among some Vatican 

priests and Swiss Guards. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/EPA

 

 

A former commander of the Swiss Guard, the small force of men whose job it is to protect the pope, has said there is "a network of homosexuals" within the Vatican, the latest in a series of claims about gay priests working at the heart of the Roman Catholic church.

Elmar Mäder, who was commandant of the Guard from 2002 until 2008, said his time at the heart of the Vatican had given him an insight into certain aspects of life there. "I cannot refute the claim that there is a network of homosexuals. My experiences would indicate the existence of such a thing," he told the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag.

Famed for their striking uniforms of blue, red and orange, recruits to the Guard swear to protect the pope and his successors with their lives.

Mäder, 50, from the canton of St Gallen, refused to comment on speculation that he had warned guardsmen about the behaviour of certain priests.

Earlier this month, the same newspaper reported the claims of a former, unnamed member of the Guard that he had been the target of more than 20 "unambiguous sexual requests" from clergy while serving in the force.

Recounting a dinner in a Rome restaurant, the man was quoted as saying: "As the spinach and steak were served, the priest said to me: 'And you are the dessert'."

At the time, spokesman Urs Breitenmoser said the rumoured gay network did not pose a problem to the Swiss Guard, whose members he said were motivated by entirely different interests.

Asked about the claims, Mäder reportedly said stories of this kind "obviously lacking in factual basis" were sometimes told. But the facts remained clear, he added. "

A working environment in which the great majority of men are unmarried is per se a draw for homosexuals, whether they consciously seek it out or unconsciously follow an urge," he said.

"The Roman Curia [the Vatican's bureaucracy] is exactly this kind of environment."

Though it does not condemn gay people, whom it says should be "accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity," the catechism of the Catholic church teaches that homosexual acts are "objectively disordered" and calls gay people to abstinence.Mäder, while he said he did not have a problem with homosexuality, said he feared that a network or secret society of gay people within the Vatican could pose security problems. He added that he would not have promoted a gay man in the Guard – not because of his sexuality but because "the risk of disloyalty would have been too high".

Mäder said: "I also learned that many homosexuals are inclined to be more loyal to each other than to other people or institutions," he said.

"If this loyalty were to go as far as to become a network or even a kind of secret society, I would not tolerate it in my sphere of decision making. Key people in the Vatican now seem to think similarly."

The comments appeared to be referring to a remark made by Pope Francis on the flight home from Brazil last summer. "They say there are some gay people here. I think that when we encounter a gay person, we must make the distinction between the fact of a person being gay and the fact of a lobby, because lobbies are not good," the pontiff told journalists, while at the same time joking that, while there was a lot of talk about a gay lobby, he had never seen it stamped on a Vatican identity card.

While Francis signalled a clear conciliatory tone on the issue, he added: "If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?" Mäder's comments about the supposed threat posed by gay guards and priests drew criticism among rights advocates in Italy.

"Along with all gay people in the armed forces, I would advise Mäder to become better informed," said Aurelio Mancuso, chairman of Equality.

Franco Grillini, chairman of Gaynet, added: "Statistically, gays are the least violent group in human society so if the pope were really surrounded by homosexuals, he could sleep easy."

Italy’s president fears violent insurrection in 2014

 The Telegraph

Events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on.

Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition”.

His latest speech is a veritable Jeremiad. Thousands of companies are on the “brink of collapse”. Great masses of the working people are on the dole or at risk of losing their jobs. Very high rates of youth unemployment (41pc) are leading to dangerous alienation.

“The recession is still biting hard, and there is a pervasive sense that it will be difficult to escape, to find a way back to full growth,” he said.

Now why might that be? Might it not have something to do with the central overriding fact that Italy has a currency overvalued by 20pc or more within EMU: that it is trapped in a 1930s fixed-exchange system run a 1930s central bank that is standing idly by...

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The Banksters are "Stealing Governments": Mario Monti, Italy's New PM

Global research

The “Shock Doctrine” is clearly at work again. Look at Italy’s new leader’s credentials, Mario Monti 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Monti

Monti is the first chairman of Bruegel, a European think tank founded in 2005, and he is European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a think tank founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller.[4] He is also a leading member of the Bilderberg Group.[5] Monti is an international adviser to Goldman Sachs and The Coca-Cola Company.[6]

In Greece the new PM Lucas Papademos served on the Federal Reserve of Boston! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Papademos

He has served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1980. He joined the Bank of Greece in 1985 as Chief Economist, rising to Deputy Governor in 1993 and Governor in 1994. During his time as Governor of the national bank, Papademos was involved in Greece’s transition from the drachma to the euro as its national currency.[4] After leaving the Bank of Greece in 2002, Papademos became the Vice President to Jean-Claude Trichet at the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010. In 2010 he left that position to serve as an advisor to Prime Minister George Papandreou.[4] He has been a member of the Trilateral Commission since 1998.[5]

You can’t make this stuff up, the Banksters are now just out right stealing governments and will perpetuate debt slavery and socialize their losses.

Compared to this, Greece was just a sideshow. Italy could blow Europe to pieces

Daily Mail

Watching the cost of servicing Italy’s debt surge past the level that triggered bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, I found one of Kipling’s verses forming in my mind:

This is midnight — let no star

Delude us — dawn is very far.
This is the tempest long foretold —
Slow to make head but sure to hold.

Italy is the third-largest economy in the EU, and the eighth largest on the planet. Its outstanding debt of €1.9 trillion (£1.6 trillion) accounts for 25 per cent of all the debt in the eurozone. 


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France & Germany Begin Talks To Break Up Eurozone

Guardian

Fears that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis was spiralling out of control have intensified as political chaos in Athens and Rome, and looming recession, created panic on world markets.

Reports emerging from Brussels said that Germany and France had begun preliminary talks on a break-up of the eurozone, amid fears that Italy would be too big to rescue.

Despite Silvio Berlusconi’s announcement that he would step down as prime minister once austerity measures were pushed through parliament, a collapse of investor confidence in the eurozone’s third-biggest economy sent interest rates in Italy to the levels that triggered bailouts in Portugal, Greece and Ireland.

Italian bond yields surged through the critical 7% mark, at one point hitting 7.5%, amid concern that the deteriorating situation had moved the crisis into a dangerous new phase.

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