Italia...

...dusting off some pages from the history books...


From The Guardian.
Silvio Berlusconi is facing growing resistance to the implementation of new austerity measures demanded by the European Central Bank.

In perhaps the most strident protest yet by a European politician at the ECB's growing power, the Italian prime minister's coalition partner, Umberto Bossi, on Thursday accused the bank of trying to oust the government. And in an equally unusual move, some of Berlusconi's own, normally docile, MPs warned the prime minister he could not count on their support for the approval of the measures.

As Italy's borrowing costs soared and its stock markets plummeted, last week the ECB's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, and his designated successor, the Italian central bank governor Mario Draghi, wrote to Berlusconi listing the demands he would have to meet if the bank were to intervene and buy Italy's embattled bonds. According to one report, the ECB's demands were set out in humiliating detail.