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IT LOOKS LIKELY that Mario Monti will take over from Silvio Berlusconi as Italy’s new prime minister.
There are very few comparisons to be drawn between the two politicians – their shared career choice and membership of the PDL party being two of the only similarities.
Monti’s wikipedia page doesn’t even have a “controversy” section, never mind installments on sexual scandals, jokes and blunders and legal problems that fill the content of the current Italian premier’s entry.
Here are some other facts which differentiate the 68-year-old from the women-loving, crooning, party-going Berlusconi.
On the personal side of things, Monti is married and a father of two. In many ways he is the antithesis of the controversial figure that Italians voted into office in May 1994, June 2001 and May 2008.
Born in Varese in Nothern Italy, Monti graduated from Bocconi and Yale before teaching at the University of Turin. He then returned to his alma mater – first as a professor and then as its dean.
His first appointment in Brussels came in 1994.
Following his appointment as a senator for life on Wednesday, he entered the chambers to a round of applause this morning. As a renowned economist and well-known academic, Monti is seen as a “safe pair of hands”.
He fiercely supports the euro and is a proponent of the single market.
The Financial Times says that Romans are already excited about the benefits the “Mario Monti impact” could have on Italy’s debt pile.
Earlier today, the Italian Senate approved economic reforms which pave the way for a transitional government led by Monti.
Another vote on the austerity package being demanded by the EU is expected to take place in the lower house tomorrow. Speculation is mounting that Berlusconi will tender his resignation on Saturday night following this crucial vote.
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What a country Ireland is at last growing into to. Its starting to mature at last… Excellent idea
Its about time Irish heroes who fought in the great war, world war 2 and other wars for foreign armies, namely the British army are remembered. Credit has to be given to Myles Dungan and Kevin Myers for their continuous writing on this topic over the years and of course Mary McAleese for the fantastic work she did in her time as president.
There was great economic pressure at the time of this recruitment, jobs were scare and people thought that the war would be short, It was a bit of an adventure for a lot of them. Unfortunately it did not turn out like that and the Irish suffered the greatest proportion of fatalities per capita of any people in the allied forces. They were treated as cannon fodder, there was nothing noble or heroic about being ordered out in your thousands to climb up a sea cliff while thousands of Ottoman soldiers shoot at you or charging across a bare field at German artillery. I certainly feel pity for them and how they were used. Like Ireland at the time, most of the men from the south in uniform were pro independence and freedom. Some were not, several of the RIC men that opened up on Bloody Sunday had done their service at the front in WW1. Countless men in the IRA, like the great Tom Barry had fought for years in WW1. My own Grand Uncle fought in WW1 and brought back weapons and grenades for my Grand Father’s IRA unit.
There is nothing heroic in dying in mud at the hands of an enemy miles away in your thousands for a side that had no trouble with you going over first but nor do I despise them. Money was tight, jobs scare and the pressure to join up was massive. I’m just sad that they died the way they did, same as if they had fought for the Czar or the Kaiser.
cannon fodder is all the Irish were in the trenches!!
Indeed and a poignant point was that Unionist regiments and Nationalist regiments were both seen as Irish by the British colonels and used for first waves attacks.
A man from Galway or from East Belfast was viewed as just as useful as stopping a German bullet, whatever flag he doodled in letters home.
Bloody nonsense…
“how Irishmen were recruited into British Forces… ” I really get fed up with this lazy post independence language that suggests the irish were dragged into some foreign army. We, like the English, Welsh and Scots simply joined THE Army.
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