The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Matteo Renzi

  • Consumer group wants Rome out of UNESCO World Heritage List

    Consumer group wants Rome out of UNESCO World Heritage List

    Rome’s monument-filled city centre does not deserve to stay in the World Heritage List because it is so severely run down, an Italian consumer group said on Thursday while inaugurating an appeal to UNESCO.

    The Italian capital is experiencing one of its recurring garbage crises, testing the governing credentials of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

    The city Mayor Virginia Raggi was elected in 2016 on the back of promises to clean up the city.

    Amid regular press reports of rat-filled streets and overflowing garbage bins, Codacons Association President Carlo Rienzi said a suspension was “indispensable” to prod local authorities into “restoring acceptable levels of civilisation.”

    The mayor, who is under pressure to act from Matteo Renzi had promised an end to the rubbish crisis “within a few days.”

    The leader of the national ruling Democratic Party (PD), urged his followers to take to the streets on Sunday to clean up the city to make up for Raggi’s supposed inability.

    Rome suffered similar crises in the past, and the city has a structural shortfall in waste management facilities, and currently pays an Austrian firm to process its excess rubbish.

    UNESCO could not immediately confirm receiving Codacons’ complaint.

    However, only two sites have ever been expelled from the World Heritage List.

    This includes an antelope wild park in Oman whose size was shrunk by 90 per cent, and the Germany city of Dresden after it built an ugly steel highway bridge.

  • Renzi set to resign after “clear-cut” referendum defeat

    Renzi set to resign after “clear-cut” referendum defeat

    Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday was due to tender his resignation after losing a crucial referendum on constitutional reforms that was seen by many as a plebiscite on his popularity.

    The Interior Ministry said just over 59 per cent of Italians voted against Renzi’s proposed reforms and less than 41 percent in favour with all votes counted.

    However, turnout was relatively high at 65.5 per cent.

    “The ‘no’ has won… the experience of my government ends here,’’ Renzi said at an overnight press conference at his official residence.

    The outcome with potentially destabilising effects on Italy and the eurozone is set to be interpreted by Europe’s anti-establishment populists as a boon to their cause.

    It followed shortly after Britain’s Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential elections.

    Renzi said he would chair a final cabinet meeting and then resign before President Sergio Mattarella, whose role will be to pick a successor or, if no new government coalition is possible, call snap elections.

    The main opposition party, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), called for elections as soon as possible.

    Under current voting rules, the M5S would be favourite to win a majority in the lower chamber of parliament, but not in the upper one.

    Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) and the conservative opposition Forza Italia of former premier Silvio Berlusconi instead want electoral reforms before new polls, ostensibly to reduce the risk of conflicting results between the two chambers.

    Report says Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan is one of the favourites to succeed Renzi if a government is formed.

    He cancelled his attendance at a meeting with European Union peers in Brussels to attend the outgoing premier’s final cabinet meeting.

  • EU goes tough on African migrants

    EU goes tough on African migrants

    Leaders of the European Union (EU) are getting tough on African migrants following the success in halting a mass influx of refugees by closing Greek borders and cutting a controversial deal with Turkey.

    According to Defence Web, A Brussels summit will endorse pilot projects to pressure African governments via aid budgets to slow an exodus of people north across the Sahara and Mediterranean. It also wants swift results from an EU campaign to deport large numbers who reach Italy.

    “By the end of the year, we need to see results,” one senior EU diplomat said on Wednesday.

    Arrivals in Italy so far this year are nearly six percent higher than the same period of 2015. Italy received 154,000 migrants last year and this year’s figure will be similar or slightly higher.

    Italy is sheltering 165,000 asylum seekers, almost three times as many as in 2014. The build-up has accelerated since Italy’s northern neighbours clamped down on border controls.

    Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has told EU allies Rome can cope for now but is worried about the future.

    EU officials want to put in place tougher measures to identify illegal migrants and fly them back to Africa before next year’s migration season when thousands are expected to take to precarious boats from Libya.

    “We need to clean this up and have migration compacts with African countries in place before next spring,” a senior EU official said.

    That will depend on persuading African states – initially a group of five – to take back their own citizens. The EU is already bringing African officials to Italy to identify citizens who may try to conceal their identity to avoid being sent home.

    At the summit, European Union leaders will agree to use money and trade to force African countries to curb emigration, in a shift towards a more hard-nosed joint foreign policy.

    As a result, African leaders may be persuaded to agree with the new policy by the fact that the EU is the continent’s biggest aid donor.

  • Italy President asks Renzi to be next PM

    Italy President asks Renzi to be next PM

    Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano has asked Matteo Renzi, the mayor of Florence, to form a new government.

    Enrico Letta resigned as prime minister on Friday, after he was ousted in a vote called by Renzi at a meeting of their centre-left Democratic Party.

    Renzi, who has never been elected as MP, will now have to come to a deal with Letta’s former coalition partners.

    He will begin talks on Tuesday and could be sworn in on Thursday.

    Renzi would become Italy’s youngest ever prime minister, two months younger than Benito Mussolini when he came to power in 1922.

    In a separate development on Monday, Italy’s borrowing costs dropped to their lowest rates for almost eight years. Ten-year debt bonds fell to 3.64 per cent, seen as an apparent nod from the markets towards Renzi’s plans for economic reform.

  • Italy gets youngest PM

    The leader of the Centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Matteo Renzi, was on Monday appointed as the new Italian Prime Minister.

    Renzi, 39-year-old Mayor of Florence, was summoned by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at Quirinale Presidential Palace in the morning and given a mandate to try to form a new cabinet, after the resignation of Enrico Letta last week.

    “I accepted the mandate President Napolitano has given me with reservation, and I will put all my energy and strength in the commitment of forming a new government that could last until the natural end of the parliamentary term and implement all necessary reforms,” Renzi told reporters.

    “Today I will meet with the presidents of the Senate and the House of Chambers and then I will begin talks with political parties to strike a deal on the programme,” Renzi added.

    “The new programme will require an urgent discussion on constitutional reforms to be carried out during February.

    “Then government and parliament will be put at work on the unemployment emergency in March and on the reform of public administration and tax system between April and June,” he concluded.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Renzi is the youngest Italian prime minister ever.

    Intense and swift consultations with political parties were carried out by President Napolitano on Friday and Saturday, in order to shorten the political uncertainty as much as possible.

    It was widely expected that Renzi would be chosen for the role, since he leads the largest party in parliament.

    Renzi became prime minister after Letta resigned on Friday following a call of his own Democratic Party on Thursday for a new administration and a more incisive implementation of reforms.

    Letta was increasingly blamed by party for the slow pace of his cabinet in dealing with the crisis.

    His younger rival Renzi said the country had an urgent need to end “uncertainty” and pull out from the economic “swamp.”

     

  • Italy to get youngest PM

    … Enrico Letta resigns as premier

    Florence mayor Matteo Renzi is expected to be offered the chance to become Italian prime minister, as talks begin on forming a new government, the BBC reports.

    President Georgio Napolitano is starting consultations following the resignation of Enrico Letta.

    He was ousted in a vote called by Mr. Renzi at a meeting of their centre-left Democratic Party. The 39-year-old would be Italy’s youngest prime minister.

    Mr. Letta was under increasing pressure over Italy’s poor economic performance.

    After accepting the prime minister’s resignation, Mr. Napolitano’s office said talks would begin with political leaders on finding a replacement.

    The consultations would be conducted swiftly to find an “efficient solution” and they would conclude on Saturday, the statement added.

    Mr. Letta’s position became untenable once the Democratic Party backed a call for a new administration.

    Mr. Renzi had argued that a change of government was needed to end “uncertainty.”

    A new government should take over until the end of the current parliamentary term in 2018, he said.

    He had accused Mr. Letta of a lack of action on improving the economic situation, with unemployment at its highest level in 40 years and the economy shrinking by 9 per cent in seven years.

    The Italian prime minister was also accused of failing to implement promised reforms of what is seen as an often corrupt and wasteful bureaucracy.

     

  • Italian PM to resign

    Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has said he will resign on Friday after his Democratic Party backed a call for a new administration.

    Party leader Matteo Renzi had earlier called for a change of government at a party meeting, saying the country could not go on in “uncertainty.”

    Speculation has been rife that Mr. Renzi wants to take over as prime minister.

    BBC reports that he is eight years younger than Mr. Letta and was elected leader of the party in December.

    Mr. Letta said in a statement that his decision followed “the decision taken today by the national leadership of the Democratic Party.”

    The PM said he would formally submit his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano at the presidential palace on Friday.

    Relations between Mr. Letta and Mr. Renzi had become increasingly fraught, the BBC reports.

    The Democratic Party now hopes that Mr. Renzi will be able to replace him and form a new administration, the report adds.

    Mr. Renzi has previously accused Mr. Letta of a lack of action on improving the economy, with unemployment at its highest level in 40 years and the economy shrinking by 9 per cent in seven years.