European Summit: Monti wins, the Italian people lose, and austerity and Recession Continue

Italiano: Mario Monti (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The latest 'crunch' EU Summit on 28-29 June has landed citizens with a huge bill to bail out the banks yet again, argue Italy's communists. But it will not end speculation against the Euro nor the blackmail of financial markets, forcing governments to continue pursuing failed austerity policies. Paolo Ferrero, leader of Italy’s Communist Refoundation party, said ‘citizens will pay the debts of private banks throughout Europe. This is a massive, unprecedented socialization of losses.’ Ferrero added that ‘speculators will not  have to pay for their own gambling’ because that it going to be paid for by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the bail out fund which was previously restricted to lending to national governments but will now be able to lend directly to Eurozone banks. And this bailout fund, Ferrero pointed out, will be paid for by ‘citizens all over Europe’ through their taxes.‘This is an enormous weight around the neck of the citizens if we think only of  the private banks in Spain that have been earmarked 100 billion euros.’ The Italian communist leader also slammed the continued backing by EU leaders of the Fiscal Compact, otherwise known as the Permanent Austerity Treaty, agreed by EU leaders in March, and that was ratified after massive international pressure by Ireland in a referendum, and on Friday by Germany’s parliament, with the support of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. ... Continue to read.

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