Yearbook 2012
 Italy.
According to
countryaah, Silvio Berlusconi's resignation as prime minister
in November 2011 - a result of the euro crisis - was assumed
to be the end of a long political era, but new surprises
would come a year later. The successor, economist Mario
Monti, with his unpolitical so-called expert government
quickly presented his first crisis package with huge
savings. It included deteriorated pension conditions,
increased retirement age and stricter excise taxes.
Before the New Year 2012, Parliament approved the state
budget in a vote of confidence. However, Monti was able to
obtain broad support only after both the left and the right
forced the government to water down the proposals on some
points.
Foreign media's interest in Italy diminished at a time
when the contentious Berlusconi had now left the spotlight.
However, big headlines were created in connection with the
luxury ship Costa Concordia's grounding and sinking on 13
January. The circumstances surrounding the tragic and
"unnecessary" accident, which required 32 fatalities, were
remarkable, and many observers marveled at the captain's
behavior of leaving the route to allow people on land to
view the ship more closely. Trials against the captain and
the shipping company were expected earlier in 2013.
In addition to the approved austerity measures, the
government also presented a program of structural reforms
and economic stimulus in January. But proposals aimed at
increasing competition in, among other things, the taxi
industry and pharmacies led to union protests and strikes.
The international financial market remained skeptical of the
government's goal of eradicating the budget deficit within
one year, but Monti still managed to strengthen the world's
confidence in the country's politics. The Italians, too,
according to a series of opinion polls, had much greater
confidence in the Monti government than for the political
parties.
The leading government party until the end of 2011, the
People of Liberty (Il Popolo della Libertà, PDL), was on the
downhill, speckled by the ongoing legal proceedings against
leader Silvio Berlusconi. Local elections in May and
regional elections in Sicily in October, as well as several
opinion polls, confirmed the parties' crisis. At the end of
the year, PDL appeared to have lost more than half of its
supporters since the 2008 election, while LN lost half since
Bossi resigned in April.
The Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) on the
left was the biggest by all measurements, while the most
obvious sign of the Italians' "political contempt" was the
well-known comedian Beppe Grillo's populist anti-political
movement Five Star (Movimento 5 Stelle, M5S). According to
most opinion polls, the party was close to 20% the country's
second largest.
For a long time, it was unclear what Berlusconi planned
for the future. In June and July, he had declared that he
wanted to become head of government again. Disclosures about
new corruption deals within PDL, including however, in the
Lazio (Lazio) region, the constant court proceedings and
mistrust of his ability to organize the economy led to an
increasing number of people in Berlusconi's surroundings
trying to make him realize that the task was becoming too
difficult.
The legal process that is considered to have hurt
Berlusconi's reputation most is "the Ruby case", the
allegations that he paid for sexual intercourse with a then
17-year-old Moroccan and later used his influence to get the
police to release her when she was arrested on suspicion of
theft. In April, Berlusconi had personally attended a
hearing, which was unusual, but for the rest of the year his
lawyers managed to delay the case.
A corruption target originating in 1997 ended the same
way as a number of other lawsuits against Berlusconi. The
target was set in February because too much time had
elapsed. It was suspected that the politician had bribed
British lawyer David Mills to testify falsely in a previous
lawsuit. In October, however, the first convict against
Berlusconi fell since he resigned. It was a tax evasion in
connection with his media company Mediaset buying TV rights
to American films. He was initially sentenced to four years
in prison, which was reduced to one year under a law aimed
at reducing overcrowding in prisons. The case would be tried
in a higher instance.
Shortly after the verdict, Berlusconi realized that he
would not seek the post of prime minister at the 2013
parliamentary elections but remain in politics. PDL Party
Secretary Angelino Alfano was seen as a strong candidate as
a new party leader. But in early December, Alfano announced
that Berlusconi had changed his mind again and planned to
stand. One day later, December 6, PDL abstained from voting
for Monti in two vote of confidence in protest of the
economic austerity. However, the proposals were accepted,
but Monti submitted his resignation application to President
Napolitano two days after the missing PDL support.
Due to Monti's departure, the 2013 election was moved
from April to February. The days before Christmas, when the
2013 budget was adopted, he announced that he was willing to
lead the next government as well. And just before New Year's
Eve, Monti said he was gathering a coalition of middle
parties in the election. Berlusconi's political maneuvers
had thus led to two strong opponents; left candidate as head
of government, PD leader Pierluigi Bersani and Monti.
Another event that attracted a great deal of
international attention was the long prison sentences in
October against six of Italy's leading seismologists and
geologists as well as a civilian official for gross
negligence to the death of another. The convicted were
deemed to have misjudged the risks and given too reassuring
news before the big earthquake in 2009 in the city of
L'Aquila that required 309 deaths. The verdict, which was
not expected to be held in a higher instance, was sharply
criticized by researchers around the world who pointed out
that earthquakes cannot be accurately predicted.
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