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FarCenter

(19,429 posts) Sun Mar 3, 2013, 08:30 PM Mar 2013

Anger builds in Italy as old guard plots fresh technocrat take-over

Mr Grillo repeated his call for an “online referendum” on the euro and vowed to buy back €600bn of Italian bonds held by foreigners if his movement gains power, a de facto default and withdrawal from the EMU system. He has in the past called for Argentine-style “haircuts” for bondholders. “Within a year we won’t have enough money left to pay the pensions and public sector wages,” he told told Bild am Sonntag.

His newly-elected army of senators and deputies - fresh-faced idealists in their 20s or early-30s with no experience in public life - met for a “conclave” to thrash out the party line. Most of the 163 “grillini” have never met their leader, or each other.

They crowded into a room at the Hotel Saint John, many sitting on the floor with their napsacks as if it was opening day at university. Their first action was to create a “Google group” to handle logistics.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of the Italian Republic. We are seeing a true crisis of the regime,” said Professor Luca Ricolfi from Turin University.

Investors have discounted Mr Grillo’s wild rhetoric as comic chatter, but his relish for shattering taboos in putting unthinkable ideas into play. “People in Brussels can handle old-style politicians like Silvio Berlusconi but Grillo really worries them because this is a protest against the entire system, and they are afraid it is spreading to other countries,” said Giles Merritt from Friends of Europe.

The EU policy elites are increasingly alert to the danger of losing popular consent for the EU Project. European Central Bank governor Benoit Coeure said Europe must pay more attention to the “social contract” if it is to avoid feeding “nationalist temptations”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9906213/Anger-builds-in-Italy-as-old-guard-plots-fresh-technocrat-take-over.html