Cheers as Berlusconi quits amid eurozone crisis

‘Ciao! And above all don’t come back!’:

Italy: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi quit power Saturday to cheering from a crowd of thousands in Rome after a wave of market panic that shook the eurozone and brought his long rule to an end.

Berlusconi submitted his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano, triggering an explosion of joy in the Italian capital with people uncorking bottles of champagne, dancing in the streets and honking car horns.

“I am deeply embittered,” the 75-year-old Berlusconi, who has been in power for 10 of the past 17 years, told reporters after he was greeted following his last cabinet meeting with shouts of “Buffoon!” and “Go Home!” “Ciao! And above all don’t come back!” shouted one man, while another declared: “We are very, very happy!” “We’re all delighted. We’ve had enough of this person who always acted in his own interests. Italy is headed for a better future,” said 50-year-old Tommaso Romito, muffled up in a white scarf on a cold night in Rome.

Napolitano is to hold talks with all political forces from 0800 GMT to about 1700 GMT on Sunday, after which he is expected to nominate former EU commissioner Mario Monti as the head of a new transition government.

Berlusconi’s announcement Tuesday that he would resign once parliament approved a package of economic reforms that he had promised the European Union, prompted fears of a prolonged political crisis in the eurozone’s third largest economy further dragging down the entire euro area. Investors are pushing for a new government to be in place by Monday, in time for the opening of the markets.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have all called on Italy to move quickly to form an interim government instead of calling early elections.

Speaking on the eve of an Asia-Pacific summit in Hawaii, Obama said: “There is still work to be done in the broader European community to provide markets a strong assurance that countries like Italy will be able to finance their debt.”

In a tumultuous parliamentary session that voted through economic reforms including state asset sell-offs and a liberalisation of the labour market, opposition lawmakers spoke of their relief at Berlusconi’s exit. AFP