FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
European Central Bank Staged a Coup against the Legitimate Italian Government
May 29, 2018 (EIRNS)—The following abridged statement was issued today by Liliana Gorini, Chairwoman of MoviSol (Movimento Internazionale per i Diritti Civili—Solidarietá), the association of Lyndon LaRouche in Italy.
With an intervention which goes against the most fundamental rules of democracy and international law, Europe vetoed the “government of change” which was being formed in Italy and which had a clear parliamentary majority. Europe imposed yet another technocratic government, which had been ready for months, led by Mr. Spending Review, Carlo Cottarelli, whose plan is just to cut the debt, and who has only the support of the Democratic Party (PD) which lost the legislative elections on March 4th.
This is the latest example of that “suspension of democracy” demanded a year ago by the European Union when it introduced the balanced budget as the only aim of each and every European government, or the “market-compliant democracy” of Angela Merkel. The paradoxical aspect, which has no precedent in the history of the Italian Republic (which is a parliamentary Republic and not a Presidential one), are the reasons given by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to explain why he vetoed Prof. Paolo Savona, renowned economist, former minister and head of Confindustria, as Finance Minister in the new government. Mattarella said he did it in order not to upset “foreign investors” who fear that Italy might leave the euro. This, despite the fact that in the government program agreed between the Lega and the Five Star party, and also in the statement of Professor Savona last Sunday, there was no mention of leaving the euro, only the demand to change the failed policy of austerity which in Italy created “poverty, reduced incomes and inequalities” (Professor Savona).
In the days before this unacceptable coup against a legitimate government, which was anticipated with great hope by Italians, Mattarella was apparently often in touch with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, that Mario Draghi who in 2011 imposed the technocratic government of Mario Monti, not elected by any Italian, with a letter which dictated the tasks of the government. Also French President Emmanuel Macron interfered with this decision, by calling up incumbent Premier Giuseppe Conte, before he was received at the Quirinale [presidential residence] with his list of ministers, to ask him to remove Paolo Savona from that list, and then afterwards by supporting Mattarella for rejecting Savona.
The press which speaks for the City of London and the financial lobbies, which are responsible for the 2008 crisis with their speculations, allowed itself to insult not only the Lega and the Five Star party, who worked together to write down a government program aimed at promoting jobs and fighting poverty, but also all Italians as a people, calling them “barbarians” (Financial Times) and “freeloaders” (Der Spiegel)....
The question many ask is: Why impose by force a technocratic government which will last no more than three months, since it does not have a majority in the Parliament; and which, according to PD politician Massimo D’Alema, will increase the votes of the Lega-Five Star government coalition from 60% to 80%? Are financial markets so desperate that they need to buy time, even only three months?
This seems to be the true reason for the coup d’état. Deutsche Bank is on the verge of bankruptcy, its exposure in derivatives has reached such a level that even its chief economist David Folkerts-Landau exposed the fact that it has become a hedge fund. As Italian economist Alberto Bagnai, elected to the Italian Senate with the Lega, declared in a radio interview:
“The euro could blow up, but not because of us. Deutsche Bank is ready to fire 7,000 employees. All of these big banks have heavy exposures in derivatives. Let’s suppose that it is the German private finance to blow up instead of the Italian public debt. We have to be ready for such an event.”
Also, the leader of the Five Star party Alessandro Di Battista, in a prime time national TV interview on May 28th with Lilli Gruber, reported that “They prevented this government because they are terrified of banking separation and a state bank for investments.”
So, rather than the fear of an Italexit, what freaked out the markets is the fact that the Salvini-Di Maio government had in its program two points which are dear to the LaRouche movement, reinstating Glass-Steagall and national banking, in order to issue credit for the real economy. The present financial system is so rotten and ready to explode, that it does not allow debating, let alone including such points in the government program of an important country such as Italy, one of the founders of Europe. In order to keep this rotten system alive, previous Italian governments, from Monti to Gentiloni, imposed draconian austerity measures.
Europe, the EU, the Troika, the ECB, the economists, and press outlets of the establishment refuse to understand that in the last years a New Paradigm has been asserting itself, and found its expression in the Brexit, Trump’s election victory in the U.S., the “No” in the Italian referendum to change the Constitution, and now the Italian vote on March 4th. It finds its expression also in the fact that two-thirds of the world joined the Belt and Road Initiative of President Xi Jinping, with its win-win policy of economic cooperation, as opposed to the geopolitical policy of confrontation with Russia and China leading to war.
They managed to prevent the government of change, which will be there again in a few months, as Salvini said; but they cannot prevent the New Paradigm, which is asserting itself all over the world....
