Italy Political Crisis

Italy faced unprecedented political uncertainty on Friday as a severe government crisis put Mario Draghi's future as prime minister on tenterhooks, raising the spectre of snap elections while unnerving the debt markets.

Italy's parties Saturday voted overwhelmingly for outgoing President Sergio Mattarella to remain for another term, averting the political chaos a failure to elect his successor could have sparked in the eurozone's third-largest economy.

The leader of Italy's ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, declared the governing coalition to be unworkable on Thursday after months of internal bickering and said the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.

Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund director, will face an uphill battle should, as expected, he is tasked with forming a technocrat government for Italy in the midst of a deep political crisis and populist rage at the financial "elite".

Italy could be forced to hold new elections after Giuseppe Conte gave up his bid to form a government following the collapse of talks with the president over including a eurosceptic economy minister in his cabinet.

Talks on a political solution to the civil war in Syria got under way today, with 17 countries plus the United Nations and European Union taking part.

Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano, who reluctantly agreed to a second term in 2013 at a time of political crisis, may step down in January, five years before the end of his term, political commentators said on Sunday.

About 20 Italian centre-right lawmakers may break with leader Silvio Berlusconi if he tries to bring down prime minister Enrico Letta's coalition in a dispute over Berlusconi's fraud conviction, a centre-right party source warned today.

Centre-right ministers in Italy's fragile coalition government resigned today, throwing the country into a fresh political crisis after Prime Minister Enrico Letta issued what they called an "unacceptable" ultimatum.

Italy's political crisis, already a month old, could drag on for at least several more weeks and is now inextricably tied up with the vote for a successor to President Giorgio Napolitano, the man in charge of finding a solution.

With no government in sight more than a month after elections which produced no clear winner, Italian political analysts have struggled to predict the possible outcome of the latest negotiations.

Italians head to the polls on Sunday and Monday for their first general election since the ousting of Silvio Berlusconi in a climate of economic crisis and amid fears of fresh political instability.

Experts and leaders gathered in Italy may disagree on the cure, but the malady seems clear: the world economy faces a "perfect storm" of risks that include prolonged crisis in a structurally flawed Europe, political paralysis pushing America off a "fiscal cliff," a slowdown in the emerging economies drying up the last of global growth, and the spec...

The IMF on Tuesday warned that Italy's economy remains "vulnerable" to the euro debt crisis.

They were bleary-eyed in their crumpled suits early on Friday morning, but euro zone negotiators were smiling after a hard-fought night of talks that struck a surprisingly far-reaching deal to prop up the euro. An agreement to let the euro zone's rescue funds directly recapitalise banks - something Spain has long held out for - went substantially b...

Italy faced unprecedented political uncertainty on Friday as a severe government crisis put Mario Draghi's future as prime minister on tenterhooks, raising the spectre of snap elections while unnerving the debt markets.

Italy's parties Saturday voted overwhelmingly for outgoing President Sergio Mattarella to remain for another term, averting the political chaos a failure to elect his successor could have sparked in the eurozone's third-largest economy.

The leader of Italy's ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, declared the governing coalition to be unworkable on Thursday after months of internal bickering and said the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.

Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund director, will face an uphill battle should, as expected, he is tasked with forming a technocrat government for Italy in the midst of a deep political crisis and populist rage at the financial "elite".

Italy could be forced to hold new elections after Giuseppe Conte gave up his bid to form a government following the collapse of talks with the president over including a eurosceptic economy minister in his cabinet.

Talks on a political solution to the civil war in Syria got under way today, with 17 countries plus the United Nations and European Union taking part.

Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano, who reluctantly agreed to a second term in 2013 at a time of political crisis, may step down in January, five years before the end of his term, political commentators said on Sunday.

About 20 Italian centre-right lawmakers may break with leader Silvio Berlusconi if he tries to bring down prime minister Enrico Letta's coalition in a dispute over Berlusconi's fraud conviction, a centre-right party source warned today.

Centre-right ministers in Italy's fragile coalition government resigned today, throwing the country into a fresh political crisis after Prime Minister Enrico Letta issued what they called an "unacceptable" ultimatum.

Italy's political crisis, already a month old, could drag on for at least several more weeks and is now inextricably tied up with the vote for a successor to President Giorgio Napolitano, the man in charge of finding a solution.

With no government in sight more than a month after elections which produced no clear winner, Italian political analysts have struggled to predict the possible outcome of the latest negotiations.

Italians head to the polls on Sunday and Monday for their first general election since the ousting of Silvio Berlusconi in a climate of economic crisis and amid fears of fresh political instability.

Experts and leaders gathered in Italy may disagree on the cure, but the malady seems clear: the world economy faces a "perfect storm" of risks that include prolonged crisis in a structurally flawed Europe, political paralysis pushing America off a "fiscal cliff," a slowdown in the emerging economies drying up the last of global growth, and the spec...

The IMF on Tuesday warned that Italy's economy remains "vulnerable" to the euro debt crisis.

They were bleary-eyed in their crumpled suits early on Friday morning, but euro zone negotiators were smiling after a hard-fought night of talks that struck a surprisingly far-reaching deal to prop up the euro. An agreement to let the euro zone's rescue funds directly recapitalise banks - something Spain has long held out for - went substantially b...