About: Berlusconi Archives

One of Italy's most prominent businessmen, often seen as the potential leader of a transitional government of national unity, called on Monday (31 October) for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to step down immediately to stem the growing debt crisis.

EU leaders' decisions taken early on Thursday (27 October) were greeted with widespread relief across Europe, but the summit outcome was tempered by worries on the complexity of the deal. The EURACTIV network reports from Europe's capitals.

Italy’s EU colleagues expressed satisfaction with the contents of a letter brought to the summit yesterday (26 October) by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi setting out Rome’s intention to rein in public expenditure and counter contagion from Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. EU SUMMIT LIVE!

Pressed by EU leaders to put Italy's finances in order, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reached a last-minute deal yesterday (25 October) to reform the country's pension system. But Umberto Bossi, his key coalition partner, said he was pessimistic that the government could survive.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was defiant ahead of tomorrow's (26 October) crunch EU summit that is expected to put in place bold measures to protect the euro from highly indebted countries such as Italy.

As expected, German MEP Martin Schulz has been nominated as a candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament for the second half of the current term (January 2012-June 2014).

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi avoided a court hearing in Italy today (13 September) regarding a sex and bribery scandal by scheduling meetings with the presidents of the three main EU institutions, who are all from his own centre-right political family.

Rome pledged on Tuesday (6 September) to hike value added tax and insert a balanced budget amendment into its constitution to limit debt, drawing praise from the European Commission while thousands marched in protest against austerity measures.

In a clear sign of rising market worries, the premium investors demand to buy Italian bonds rather than benchmark German debt widened on Monday (5 September), moving Italy firmly to the centre of the eurozone crisis. Meanwhile, the Italian parliament begins debating a much-criticised austerity package today.

Despite the Italian finance minister's reassurances that a crackdown on tax evasion will provide enough revenue to replace the levy on high earners dropped from Rome's austerity package, employers' group Confindustria has labelled the government's plan "weak and inadequate" and expressed concern about how Italy's economic problems are being handled.

Italy’s political crisis scaled new heights yesterday (3 August) as European institutions voiced confidence in the under-fire markets of the country, whose fragility is threatening the entire euro zone.

The European Court of Justice confirmed yesterday (28 July) that the Italian switchover from analogue to digital TV has been illegally subsidised, favouring the channels of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A mammoth reimbursement is now due by his Mediaset media empire.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a humiliating defeat yesterday (13 June) as Italians turned out in large numbers to vote in referenda which he had encouraged them to boycott.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition risks losing its northern power base of Milan to the left for the first time in 18 years when voting in local election run-offs ends today (30 May).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday (26 April) asked Brussels to make changes to the treaty establishing the Schengen border-free area. The proposed changes strengthen the hand of member countries and undermine the role of the European Commission.

Italy and France will today (26 April) discuss changing rules that scrap border checks between EU countries, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Rome seeking to ease tensions over North African immigration following the Arab revolutions.

Paris and Rome are playing "ping-pong" with thousands of immigrants who travel by boat from the North African coast to the Italian island of Lampedusa, after which most of them try to reach France, the press in the two countries reports.

Italy celebrated yesterday (17 March) the 150th anniversary of its unification. But the country has never been so divided, with separatist forces gaining ground in the north and south alike.

Meeting in Helsinki late on Saturday (5 March), leaders from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) derided the absence of two of the four centre-left Party of European Socialists (PES) prime ministers from an alternative summit held simultaneously in Athens.

MEPs and prominent professionals in the media world warned yesterday (3 March) that press freedom had deteriorated badly in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, but also Italy and France, and called on the EU institutions to spearhead a wide-ranging "reconquest" of basic rights across the European Union.

An Italian judge has ordered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial in April on a charge that he paid an underage girl for sex, though there appears to be no immediate risk that the scandal will force him from office.

Hundreds of thousands of women rallied in Rome and other cities yesterday (13 February), incensed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex scandals, which they say have disgraced Italy.

Despite broad consensus across political parties, Italian MEPs are blocking a European Parliament debate on the continuing waste crisis in Campania, southern Italy.

With a new Silvio Berlusconi sex scandal involving prostitutes and an underage girl of Moroccan origin dominating Italian political debate, people in Brussels are lamenting the damage to Italy's reputation. Meanwhile, the leader of the MEPs from Berlusconi's party is distancing himself from the prime minister's behaviour.