06/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - After the interview with Labour Minister Roberto Maroni, who called for a temporary return to using the Italian lire, followed by remarks from the minister for reform, Roberto Calderoli, who defined the president of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, as “vanquished” and jointly responsible for the “disaster of the euro” (ED.: as former Finance Minister, Silvio Berlusconi recalled his ministers of La Lega Nord to order (EUROPE 8961). According to the press, during a telephone conversation with the prime minister, President Ciampi criticised those who encourage “irresponsible euro-scepticism” and say the euro is responsible for things that it is not responsible for. Furthermore, in Corriere della Sera of 6 June, the former European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti looks back at the time when “Bossi wanted Padania in the euro zone”. In August 1996, with a view to the “declaration of independence of Padania”, Mr Montyi recalls, “Umberto Bossi had written to the president of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, calling for indications on how to make Padania join economic and monetary Union from the start, on 1 January 1999”. Shortly before, Roberto Calderoli spoke of the lire as a currency reduced to nothing, Professor Monti says.