Anger at Italy president’s ‘betrayal’ over Europe

itALY’s president was last night accused of an ‘appalling’ betrayal of the will of his people after ignoring impeachment calls and imposing a technocratic government led by a Europhile.

MEPs said the country was in ‘meltdown’ and hit out at sergio Mattarella after he appointed former international Monetary Fund official Carlo Cottarelli to lead an interim administration.

Just hours earlier Mr Mattarella had faced calls to be impeached after rejecting plans from the anti-establishment 5-star Movement and League parties to install a Eurosceptic as the country’s economy minister.

the populist parties had been trying to form a coalition after elections on March 4 returned a hung parliament, and wanted anti-euro professor Paolo savona to head the ministry of the economy.

But Mr Mattarella claimed the country should not have someone in the role who ‘could provoke italy’s exit from the EU’. his veto plunged the country into turmoil and led to prime minister-designate Giuseppe Conte resigning at the weekend after just four days in the job.

Mr Cottarelli, an economist, is a former iMF official who firmly believes in the eurozone project and in the necessity for italy to cut its high debts. the appointment last night led to criticism of Mr Mattarella and accusations Brussels was ‘pulling strings’ behind the scenes.

tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman said: ‘it’s appalling… this has the hallmarks of the EU’s handiwork in order to save the euro and the great project.

‘it seems incredible that the italian president can overturn a democratically elected government with over 50 per cent of the vote just to stop an anti-euro finance minister getting in. the EU is in full panic about the implications of italy reviewing staying in the euro. it’s meltdown time again.’

Ukip MEP Margot Parker added: ‘this is a slap in the face against the democratic will of italian voters… they’re effectively saying “you can’t have that, they must be pro-Europe”.’

Yesterday Mr Cottarelli said he had accepted Mr Mattarella’s request he form a government ‘that will bring the country to new elections’. these could take place after summer but may not happen until next year.

Earlier this month Mr Mattarella said italy’s squabbling parties needed to come together for the common good, otherwise he would install a technocratic government. But he has pressed ahead after refusing to approve Mr savona, 81, as economy minister. the 5-star and League parties have vowed to give Mr Cottarelli the thumbs down in required confidence votes in Parliament.

HAVING had no fewer than 65 governments since the War – with an average survival rate of just over a year – Italy is hardly renowned as a beacon of democratic stability.

But even by the standards of this volatile nation, the current political crisis is becoming more troubling and bizarre by the day. It proves yet again the disastrous folly of imposing the one-size-fits-all euro on countries for which it is so obviously unsuitable. More importantly, it demonstrates that Brussels has no qualms about trampling on democracy to keep the dream of a European superstate alive.

Marooned in a sea of debt, with a stagnant economy and crippling unemployment, Italians renounced their mainstream Europhile parties in a general election three months ago. They rightly blamed membership of the euro for their misery and elected a coalition of unashamedly populist, Eurosceptic parties – led by the maverick Five Star movement and Right-wing Northern League.

But when radical economist Paolo Savona – a passionate opponent of the single currency – was named finance minister he was vetoed by Italy’s slavishly pro-Brussels president Sergio Matarella, who then nominated his own man as prime minister and invited him to form a totally unelected government. It has no mandate of course and will soon fall, with Mr Matarella possibly being impeached for overreaching his powers. But what an affront to democracy.

Had it happened in some Third World state, it would have been denounced as tyrannical and corrupt. Yet in Paris and Berlin yesterday, Mr Matarella was being praised for his courage. Could there be a better illustration of how people across Europe are being disenfranchised – and why they are crying out for change?