Category Archives: Mario Draghi

EU leaders vow to make bloc more competitive in face of Trump threat

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Budapest meeting finds consensus on need to raise growth and productivity as ‘America first’ protectionism looms

EU leaders meeting in Budapest have signed a declaration aimed at boosting the bloc’s ailing competitiveness – a task given added urgency by the threat of “America first” protectionist trade policies promised by the US president-elect, Donald Trump.

The bloc has too many barriers to innovation and must drastically reduce red tape, especially for startups; ramp up investment; make access to capital easier; and raise productivity, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Friday.

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Ursula von der Leyen on track to keep job after EU elections boost

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Macron’s move to call snap elections also seen as helping commission president’s bid for second term

Ursula von der Leyen is on track to remain for a second term as president of the European Commission, as EU leaders meet on Monday for a first discussion on divvying up the bloc’s top jobs.

The EU’s 27 heads of state and government will gather for dinner in Brussels in their first group meeting since European elections last week boosted nationalist and far-right parties and triggered Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections in France.

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‘She’s very charismatic’: could Giorgia Meloni become Italy’s first far-right leader since Mussolini?

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Brothers of Italy leads far-right alliance in pole position for snap summer election

When the far right took power in Ladispoli, a beach town near Rome, in 2017, ending 20 years of leftwing administration, among its priorities was naming a square after Giorgio Almirante, a minister in Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship and founder of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).

Protests from anti-fascist groups failed to thwart the plan, and in 2019 the nameplate was unveiled during a ceremony that included a blessing from the priest of the church on the same square. Almirante was described by mayor Alessandro Grando, who won a second term in June, as “the father of Italian rightwing socialism and point of reference for many Italians”.

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Far right in front for snap Italy election after Draghi goes

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Brothers of Italy party favourites to top ballot in September with 24% of votes based on recent polling

Italy will hold snap elections on 25 September that could see a coalition led by the far-right Brothers of Italy party win a majority, after Mario Draghi’s resignation as prime minister.

Announcing on Thursday that he had signed a decree to dissolve parliament, the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, said: “The period we are going through does not allow for any pause in the [government] action which is needed to counter the economic and social crisis and rising inflation.”

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Italy’s Mario Draghi expected to resign as prime minister

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Former European Central Bank chief had failed to secure support from coalition partners in confidence vote

Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, is expected to confirm his resignation after three key parties in his broad coalition did not participate in a confidence vote on the conditions he set for his government continuing.

The former European Central Bank chief told the senate earlier on Wednesday that the survival of his unity administration hinged on “rebuilding the pact of trust” and spirit of cooperation of its early months, and asked for a vote on this basis.

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Italy begs Mario Draghi to stay as he prepares to face parliament

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President Sergio Mattarella rejects the prime minister’s resignation while pro-Draghi sentiment grows

The fate of the Italian government hangs in the balance amid growing pressure on Mario Draghi to remain prime minister as he prepares for a crucial speech in parliament on Wednesday.

The former European Central Bank chief’s resignation last week was rejected by President Sergio Mattarella, who instead asked him to address parliament in an attempt to avert what would be Italy’s third government collapse in three years.

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Italian government on brink of collapse amid fears Mario Draghi could resign

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Crisis driven by decision of coalition partner Five Star to sit out confidence vote

Italy’s coalition government is teetering on the brink of collapse after the Five Star Movement refused to participate in a confidence vote, raising the spectre of a snap general election.

Five Star, headed by the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, is a formerly anti-establishment party that has plummeted in the polls and lost parliamentarians since joining the government, hurt by policy U-turns and internal divisions.

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Italy’s government on the brink as 5-Star threatens to boycott confidence vote

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Populist party says it won’t back cost of living package and could withdraw from fragile coalition

The Italian government is close to collapse after the 5-Star Movement said it would boycott a crucial confidence vote in parliament, prompting calls for early elections.

Giuseppe Conte, the former prime minister who leads the populist party, said the funds set aside for a cost of living support package were insufficient and that his senators could not support the bill on Thursday.

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Italy: foreign minister leaves 5-Star to form new group backing PM

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Luigi Di Maio’s move comes after he accused 5-Star leader Giuseppe Conte of undermining government support for Ukraine

Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio has announced that he is leaving the 5-Star Movement to form a new parliamentary group backing the government of prime minister Mario Draghi.

Di Maio’s move comes after he accused 5-Star leader and former prime minister Giuseppe Conte of undermining government efforts to support Ukraine and weakening Rome’s standing within the EU.

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Scholz, Macron and Draghi vow support for Ukraine’s EU bid on Kyiv visit

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Symbolic visit of German, French and Italian leaders comes as Russia continues attacks across country

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy have vowed to support Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union on a visit to Kyiv intended as a show of unity in the face of Russian advances and complaints from the Ukrainians about the pace of weapons supplies.

“My colleagues and I came here to Kyiv today with a clear message: ‘Ukraine belongs to the European family,’” the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said at a joint press conference with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis.

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Could a cartel of large energy consumers cut oil and gas prices?

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Italy’s PM Mario Draghi suggests big consumers club together to limit how much is paid and raises idea of EU gas price cap

Energy prices are skyrocketing as the world confronts the economic ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supply chain bottlenecks and the lingering effects of Covid-19 lockdowns. But Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has a plan.

The celebrated former European Central Bank president recently broached the idea of creating a “cartel” of oil consumers at a meeting with Joe Biden. Just as the biggest oil-producing nations club together through Opec to agree annual oil production quotas, Draghi has suggested big energy consumers join forces to increase their bargaining power.

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UN head says time for Russia to end ‘unwinnable’ Ukraine war

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Leaders from the bloc to meet on Thursday to discuss support above the €1.2bn emergency fund already agreed

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards.

Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”. For more than two weeks, the devastated southern city of Mariupol had been encircled by Russian forces, bombed and shelled, he said.

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Florence asks residents to pay utility bills of struggling pensioners

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Social impact of Italy’s 50% energy price rise is evident in city where 27.6% of the population is over 65

Florence residents are being asked to pay the utility bills of elderly people living alone and struggling to make ends meet as the city’s leaders seek to shield the most vulnerable from soaring energy costs.

The “adopt a bill” initiative begins in the next few days and comes as the social implications of a more than 50% hike in gas and electricity bills in Italy this winter start to manifest.

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Italian League’s Matteo Salvini calls for new alliance based on US Republicans

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Attempt to create a rightwing political force may mean the end of partnership with Brothers of Italy

The Italian League leader, Matteo Salvini, has proposed creating a rightwing political force styled on America’s Republican party in a move that threatens to spell the end of his tense partnership with his far-right sometime rival Giorgia Meloni.

Salvini’s League and other parties including the centre-left Democratic party and populist Five Star Movement that make up Italy’s broad ruling coalition have been left in disarray after failing to agree on a mutually acceptable candidate for head of state in last week’s presidential election, culminating with Sergio Mattarella, 80, being elected for a second term against his earlier expressed wishes.

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Secret ballot to elect president of Italy begins as Berlusconi drops out

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Lawmakers and regional delegates will vote for successor to Sergio Mattarella, who steps down on 3 February

Italian parliamentarians will begin casting their votes for a new president on Monday after the scandal-plagued Silvio Berlusconi abandoned his dream of becoming the next head of state.

More than 1,000 lawmakers and regional delegates will participate in the complex secret ballot, described as being akin to the appointment of a new pope, that could go through several rounds before a successor to Sergio Mattarella, who is due to step down on 3 February, is elected.

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Silvio Berlusconi steps up Italy presidential campaign with threat to coalition

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Forza Italia leader will reportedly withdraw party from government if Mario Draghi is elected president

Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly threatened to withdraw his Forza Italia party from Italy’s governing majority if the current prime minister, Mario Draghi, is elected president later this month.

The scandal-tainted media tycoon, who served four times as prime minister, is in Rome from Tuesday on the hunt for votes as he ramps up his own presidential campaign.

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Italians fear return of instability if Mario Draghi quits to become president

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Silvio Berlusconi is among those waiting in the wings if the prime minister decides to leave the stage and forces an early election

Italians have been enjoying an unusual period of political harmony – Mario Draghi, the prime minister, brought decisive, competent leadership in the midst of the pandemic, and the economy is growing fast. But that could be thrown into jeopardy when parliament elects a new president in January.

An opaque ritual described as being akin to the appointment of a new pope, the topic is dominating the political debate as the outcome could leave Italy with a predicament at a critical juncture: should Draghi, the former European Central Bank chief credited with restoring stability and confidence in the country, remain prime minister, or become president?

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Afghanistan: what does each nation hope to get out of the G7 meeting?

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Analysis: Tuesday’s meeting called by Boris Johnson may include postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of crisis

The emergency meeting of G7 nations on Tuesday – called by Boris Johnson as this year’s chair of the G7 – is in essence a gathering of the vanquished but faces a threefold agenda: how to ensure as many Afghans as possible can leave Kabul, and whether the US is prepared to stay beyond the original 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces; how a resettlement programme can be coordinated for the medium term; and finally, how to encourage the Taliban to form an inclusive government, including by threatening sanctions or withholding recognition.

But each country will bring its own concerns and an ugly postmortem on Joe Biden’s handling of the crisis cannot be ruled out.

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Gordon Brown hits out at EU’s ‘neocolonial approach’ to Covid vaccine supplies

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Former UK prime minister calls on western leaders to convene summit to address Africa’s vaccine deficit

Gordon Brown has accused the EU of adopting a “neocolonial approach” to the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and demanded rich western nations relinquish their stranglehold on pandemic treatments.

The former UK prime minister has called on Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Mario Draghi to convene a special summit to coincide with next month’s UN general assembly in New York to address Africa’s vaccine deficit.

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Italy’s PM says Euro 2020 final should be moved to Rome due to UK Covid rates

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After Mario Draghi’s remarks, head of Italian football federation says they are not seeking to move match

Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi has said he wants the final of the European football championships to be held in Rome rather than in London, because of Britain’s rising number of coronavirus infections.

Asked during a news conference in Berlin if he was in favour of the move, Draghi said: “Yes … I will try to stop the final being held in a country where infections are rising quickly.”

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