TURIN | By Marcello Sorgi at La Stampa via Presseurop | Silvio Berlusconi, repudiated by some of his associates, who forced him to back the vote of confidence in the Enrico Letta government, and in the process of being ousted from the Senate – a committee is to decide on October 4 whether he should be stripped of his seat – Il Cavaliere is moving towards an inevitable exit from the political stage.
MADRID | The Corner Team | A typo can come very expensive. One tiny graphical error boosted Spain’s 2014 public debt forecast by 10 billion euros ($13.6 billion), the government admitted on Thursday. After announcing the figure to the world, they took four days to issue a correction.
THE CORNER TEAM | By Zsolt Darvas and Silvia Merler via Bruegel | During the crisis the European Central Bank’s roles have been greatly extended beyond its price stability mandate. In addition to the primary objective of price stability and the secondary objective of supporting EU economic policies, we identify ten new tasks related to monetary policy and financial stability.
MADRID | By Francisco López | The situation of the Spanish banking sector is still a recurrent topic in official EU meetings, especially now that we’re a little more than one month of knowing if an extension of the financial assistance program is required. ECB’s Chairman believes that Spanish banks will meet the stress tests in 2014, which seems to remove the possibility of a new aid injection. “Everything seems to suggest that Spain will approach this exercise well-equipped, but of course it is very difficult to guess what will happen with individual banks,” Draghi pointed out.
MADRID | By Tania Suárez | Angelino Alfano, Berlusconi’s deputy and secretary of People of Freedom, defied “Il Cavaliere” and urged the party to unite behind Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Wednesday. It seems the end of Berlusconi’s political leadership is nearer now that all five ministers from the PDL are stepping down. But he won’t leave without a fight.
LISBON | By Helena Matos via Presseurop | The International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank are back in Lisbon to evaluate the results of the 2011 bailout plan. This is good because otherwise Portugal would make the same mistakes that led to the crisis in the first place.
MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | The European Union troika paid a visit to Spain and concluded that the country’s banking sector “progresses satisfactorily”. Although the final report will not be unveiled until November, first impressions are promising and represent the gateway of the 2014 stress tests.
ITALY | Via Presseurop | Italy is in the midst of a political upheaval after the September 28 resignations of five ministers from the coalition government led by the Democratic Party’s Enrico Letta. Silvio Berlusconi’s decision to ask his ministers to resign is criticised by nearly all the country’s press.
THE CORNER TEAM | Austria’s two biggest political parties made their worst showings in decades in the national election on Sunday, losing votes to an array of smaller parties.
MADRID | By JP Marin Arrese | The Spanish government is about to reform the pension system so as to improve the budgetary balance. However, the current policies will not yield results in the short or medium-term and they won’t prevent deficits from emerging.