German Government Confident Italy Will Institute Austerity Measures

BERLIN (Erik Kirschbaum, Eric Kelsey and Sarah Marsh) - Germany's government has full confidence in Italy to take the necessary decisions regarding austerity measures and sees no need to expand the euro zone bailout mechanism, a government spokesman said on Monday.

"The German government has full confidence in the Italian government that it will take the clearly necessary decisions for an austerity budget," said Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Seibert also told reporters at a government news conference that Germany agreed with other euro zone leaders that a second bailout package for Greece must be agreed quickly and would top the agenda of Monday's euro zone talks in Brussels. "Germany has never said 'This all has time until the autumn,' but rather said there's a need for a quick, joint solution that nevertheless has to include the fulfillment of certain criteria," Seibert said.

But Seibert said Italy, the latest focus of worries about possible contagion of the euro zone debt crisis, was not on the agenda of a special meeting of the European Union's top finance officials ahead of talks between euro zone finance ministers.

"According to our information, Italy is not on the agenda of this meeting," Seibert said. The issue on the agenda is a new program for Greece, he added.

(Writing by Stephen Brown)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[KAL-EL]

09:52 PM on 07/11/2011

I'm sorry but it's REALLY hard to believe the Roman Empire especially their Army consisted of italians .

[Ann Starke]

07:12 PM on 07/11/2011

Will someone please refresh my memory? When was the last time Italy had a stable government that lasted more than a few months?

Germany is speaking out of hope rather than conviction.

[ThePeacemakers]

05:44 PM on 07/11/2011

They could dig up Mussolini while they're at it - that would give it that added touch.

[Starvin-Marvin]

05:32 PM on 07/11/2011

where are all the people who blame every financial problem in europe on socialism, taking greece for example. Italy is far from socialist..so please don't use that argument again.

[Richard Bartholomew]

02:31 AM on 07/13/2011

The implementation of socialist policies is only one way to ruin a country. For instance, Germany and Italy were under fascist regimes when they were wrecked during the Second World War. Fascist economics supports the existence of private property, the existence of a market economy, and the use of the profit motive (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist).

The common factor seems to be criminal activity. Socialism is only one manifestation of this (primarily in the form of stealing private property and giving it to the state). But you can also forcibly lock people up in concentration camps and murder them to get a similar result.
Pick your poison.

[Starvin-Marvin]

12:55 PM on 07/13/2011

You see it as stealing, we see it as a normal thing. Everybody is equal. As long as the taxes flow back to the people who need it.
We are one people in our countries.
In the US you only think about yourself and maybe your wife and kids (as long as it doesn't cost too much). That's why you never reach anything collectively, you're all individuals.

But I didn't expect anything else, from somebody from a country who have never learned to lead a country in a normal way.
In your short history you first killed all the natives from one continent and steal their land, then you forced people from another continent to work for free, and after you 'got modern' and had to stop slavery, you are doing everything to keep the labourers as close as possible to the slavery line. And by that enhancing the economy a little more by invading countries and stealing their riches. At least we in Europe told them we were colonizing those poor countries.

Yes the US way is far better.

[Paul1963]

04:41 PM on 07/11/2011

Silvio needs to woo Angela. Oh I forgot she's not 18.

She probably longs for the days when W wanted to give her shoulder's a rub.

It appears to me that Germany is running out of fingers to stick in the EU's financial dike.

[fortressfountain]

02:49 PM on 07/11/2011

You are missing the point. The globalists agenda is to turn everything over to the banks and corporations. The government will not be involved at all except to collect kickbacks and their own pensions and salries paid for by you and me.
It never was about gov. takeover of anything-this system will be much worse than socialism.

[BartRoberts]

05:47 PM on 07/11/2011

Agreed. Fanned and faved.

Our "leaders" took us down a different path but brought us to the same place the old Soviet Union was when it collapsed: Too few people with too much wealth and power, and the mass of others economically and politically bereft.

[jagrmeister721]

06:43 PM on 07/11/2011

Very well said; it's unsettling how quickly they're achieving their aims.  No Western country will be unaffected.

[gomezrules]

02:36 PM on 07/11/2011

So even the European socialist paradises are finally getting it that the uncontrolled Nanny State spending has to be curtailed. 'Austerity measures' are the key to financial health! The left over here is going to have a collective conniption fit over this! It is their main goal in this life to make this nation 'more like Europe', especially when it comes to govt spending and the govt holding everyone's hands and determining how they will live their lives. Now Europe is heading into an other direction from where the left wants to steer us!

[Starvin-Marvin]

05:53 PM on 07/11/2011

Italy is not socialist at the moment, and neither is Germany. Germany has a Christian Democratic government, together with Labour. Italy is Center-right wing together with 'extreme' right separatists.
The Germanic or mainland Europe's financial system is better for the people and environment than the Anglo Saxon system you use, and not the causer of this worldwide mess. That's your egoistic country together with your English cousins.
The reason these countries can't pay back their loaning's is because they never could. But the quick money grabbing people invested anyway and never thought anything could go wrong or they didn't care. Now they have so much influence that our governments are going to bail the countries out instead of letting the countries go bankrupt. It were the money predators who caused this and nobody else.
The fact that we don't let our people starve in Europe has nothing to do with economic mismanagement, we care for our people and are doing this for centuries. We just have higher taxes so that the disabled and weak can have a good life, and some money for things like culture.

[CologneCitizen]

03:37 AM on 07/12/2011

Many posters here are simply misinformed. They confuse a social democratic or conservative Europeand government with socialism, and when people over here get benefits from their in fact hard earned taxes they confuse this with "free loading. Meanwhile Americans are used to the point that losses of big American corporations are socialized while profits are kept private. So whatever you write on this subject, either you are preaching to the choir of travelled Americans having seen the world and knowing what's happening, or to folks who still believe the USA is number one, the earth is flat and baby jesus rode into Jerusalem on a dinosaur.

[ErnestineBass]

01:47 PM on 07/11/2011

It would behoove Italy to first remove (by whatever means necessary) that thoroughly corrupt PM of theirs, "Bunga Bunga Berlusconi".

[ItWasntMeReally]

01:16 PM on 07/11/2011

Year after year it appears with the rise of Rightwing dominance the Western World sinks more and more into third world status.  That's evidenced by the fact that as big corp profits soar, breaking one record after another, the stature of citizens, their wealth, their jobs and their social safety nets shrink.

[BartRoberts]

05:51 PM on 07/11/2011

If I wanted to ultimately destroy capitalism, I would do exactly as the free marketeers are now doing: Let it run wild, free and unregulated, and let it grind under the erstwhile middle class, the people who had been the bulwark of the system.

Soon, people would see what a vicious creature it is when let off it's leash, or, to put it another way, it would (and will) burn itself out.

[ItWasntMeReally]

08:11 PM on 07/11/2011

I understand the gist of your point and agree.  But the thing is it's NOT a real free market system.  It's a system that's highly rigged. Any system that allows politicians to be bought by campaign contributors, something that only big money can afford in big chunks, is going to favor those donors over citizens.  Any system that allows paid lobbyists, something that only big money can afford, will fix laws to favor those entities who hired the lobbyists.  Any system that allows corporations to be not only considered a person, but more important than people, can not be equitable.  Any system that considers corrupt entities like Wall Street and banking too  big to fail, but the population too insignificant to succeed, and expects the insignificant population to foot the bill for the too-big-and-important to fail is not just.  That's how highly profitable corps are allowed to privatize record profits while they socialize their gambling losses.  This is NOT a free market system.  A free market system would not allow the rich who earn most of their money through investments to be taxed at 15% capital gains rate while the middle class who has to work for a living have to pay 35%.  There are so many things wrong and not free about this system it ain't funny.

[ItWasntMeReally]

01:13 PM on 07/11/2011

Looking at that picture one would think BurlyBerly is 30 years younger than the MurkyMerkel.

[Bflogal99]

01:45 PM on 07/11/2011

Her expression is priceless. It's as if she is plotting her move to find some soap and water, or at least a decent hand sanitizer.

[nrglaw]

02:15 PM on 07/12/2011

How "confident" does she look in this picture? And is that really Silvio or a paper cutout? Italian politics are more farcical today than ever. Highly recommend this New Yorker piece from June (Basta, Basta Bunga Bunga!) about where Silvio has taken Italy. I wouldn't believe him if he said the sun rises in the morning.

[ItWasntMeReally]

01:11 PM on 07/11/2011

.

[ItWasntMeReally]

01:11 PM on 07/11/2011

Who's that woman with lots of plastic surgery and transplanted, dyed hair?  The one standing next to Merkel?

[Marcus1]

12:28 PM on 07/11/2011

Austerity you say, I say then do away with this sick capitalistic model.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

11:44 AM on 07/11/2011

"Germany is confident that Italy will institute austerity measures." And we can all be confident that they will have the same affect in Italy as they have in Greece: destroy the economy.

[bovine13]

11:36 AM on 07/11/2011

"euro zone bailout mechanism"....the fact that they are establishing a mechanism for bailing out countries is what truly stuck out to me. Doesn't that strike any of them as telling that there are some pretty big problems that need to be addressed?!