FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Italian Prime Minister Conte Promises Glass-Steagall and a Review of Russia Sanctions

June 6, 2018 (EIRNS)—The new Italian government led by Giovanni Conte won a vote of confidence both in the Senate yesterday and in the Chamber of Deputies today. In his programmatic speeches, Conte announced a Russia-friendly foreign policy and bank separation (Glass-Steagall). As for the latter, this is the first time that a Western government has pushed it in Parliament.

“We have a maturing awareness and the evaluation, included in the [governing coalition] contract, that we must distinguish, that it is opportune to distinguish between the banks issuing credit and above all that are community-linked, and the more speculation-prone investment banks,”

Conte said today in his remarks in the Chamber.

“Concerning international scenarios, markets and security, we want to preliminarily reiterate our confirmed membership in the Atlantic alliance and with the United States of America as privileged ally. But careful! We will push an opening to Russia, a Russia which has consolidated in the last years its international role in various geopolitical crises. We will promote a review of the system of sanctions, starting with those which threaten to humiliate Russian civil society.”

Otherwise, Conte promised to increase lower incomes and pensions, and to create jobs, but he was ambiguous on infrastructure (he did not lay out one single project), and insisted on green economy, sharing economy, blue economy, circular economy, decarbonization, and the entire toolbox of environmentalism.