Brussels, 11/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has stated that he has no intention of continuing in government after the next general elections, planned for April 2013. He was speaking after the Eurogroup and Ecofin Council meetings in Brussels on 9-10 July, at which he took part as interim economy and finance minister (on 11 July, he handed over this portfolio to his deputy, Vittorio Grilli, who accompanied him at these meetings). He confirmed, however, that, after the elections, he would remain as a member of parliament as a senator for life. Monti was responding to questions on his political future and on possible speculative pressure that could build on Italian bonds after his term of office, linked to the uncertainty over the country's future economic and budgetary policy. Indeed, the same Mario Monti had expressed the fear that “the closer the end of our term of office in government comes, the more the spread will increase”. The current national political situation would appear to prove him right, with the Democratic Party on the rise, but struggling to break clear of the rest because of its support for the government in this difficult economic context, and the Pole of Freedoms in serious decline, though it could bounce back before the elections if former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi were to put himself forward as head of the list.
Assessing this state of affairs, Monti said that a country's spread is not “a bitter cake that can be cut up into pieces” and that may depend on a statement, an uncertainty or a delay in approval of a measure. It cannot be “analysed chemically” and it rather reflects a lesser degree of attractiveness of the bonds of one country compared with those of other countries. He argued that the factors that can help maintain the spread at a high level are many and subjective: the government of the country will be responsible if it does not conduct policies appropriate to the seriousness of the situation at the time. Today, however, the most important factor, which will increasingly determine the level of the spread, is linked rather to Italy's governance capacity, related to the political and institutional reforms put in place and the conduct of the parties once this short technocratic government comes to an end. For all these reasons, the Italian head of government could only welcome the outcome of these meetings of the Eurogroup and the Ecofin Council which confirmed that an “anti-spread shield” would be put in place which, by means of more flexible use of the EFSF and the ESM, should make it possible to buy back the bonds issued by countries which, like Italy, scrupulously adhere to budgetary discipline but which find themselves, nonetheless, under attack from speculators. He confirmed that, though he rules out recourse to this mechanism at the moment, it would be “audacious” to say that Italy will never need aid from one or other of these funds and it may be that Italy will, at some point, need temporary support to contain spread fluctuations, though not aid to iron out “imbalances” or pay civil servants' wages, as is the case with Greece. Commenting on the outcome of the Council, he said that it is “highly significant that, the deeper one goes into things to try to resolve the most serious and most pressing problems, the more one sees it is difficult to do so without taking further steps towards integration which is also political”. (FG/transl.rt)