Unions, banks and employers against Berlusconi

“Change now, or Italy will crash”, headlines La Repubblica. The Italian daily reports on a “brand new and dramatic” manifesto signed on 27 July by Italian unions, banks and the employers’ federation Confindustria, all urging the Berlusconi government to act immediately in order to “gain credit on the markets before the economic situation in Italy becomes untenable”. “A break [with the past] and a new social pact is now necessary”, says the document, “to assure debt sustainability and the creation of new jobs”. “The austerity measures approved by the Italian government last week have not persuaded markets yet”, underlines La Repubblica. On the same issue, Corriere della Sera columnist Massimo Franco regards the manifesto as “the Italian economy’s howl in a country without credibility”. He continues, “This almost unprecedented document consigns the Italian government into endless purgatory, and highlights a general dissatisfaction towards Berlusconi's government economic policy”.