.jpg)
The President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, at the end of the consultations has issued the following statement:
"I met today with the Presidents of the Senate and the Lower House and the representatives of all parliamentary groups to gather their opinions on how to deal with the crisis that began with the resignation of the government of Mr. Berlusconi. To each group I explained my conviction that the interests of the country requires efforts to form a government that can get the widest range of support in Parliament in order to consolidate our financial position and to improve the country's prospects for economic growth and stability. Each group listened in a calm and reflective way.
The urgency of those choices - from the realization of measures already agreed at the EU - stems from the severity of the financial crisis and the dangers of an economic downturn in Italy and Europe. The particular fragility of our country is due to the very high public debt accumulated in the past. It is a weight - considering the recent high rise in interest rates on the BOT and the stagnation of our economic activity - that may put at risk the very fabric of the state.
It is essential to restore the confidence of investors and European institutions, working in the required direction without delay. And we feel a responsibility to the entire international community, to protect the stability of our common currency and the European constitution itself, as well as to protect the prospects for a global economic recovery.
Starting tomorrow until the end of April nearly two hundred billion Euros of Treasury bills will mature and we will need to renew them by putting them on the market. All political parties interested in the future of the country should agree that we need to avoid early elections and a vacuum of government.
Because of this need, I have decided to entrust Senator Prof. Mario Monti with the task of forming a new government which is open to the support and cooperation from both the parties that won the 2008 election and the opposition parties. The governing parties have seen in recent times tensions and fractures leading to a reduced majority in Parliament. As Head of State, I have followed with scrupulous impartiality this issue, always respecting the role of the Prime Minister and the Government, in the spirit of loyalty to the institutions of state.
It is not a question of reversing the outcome of the elections of 2008, nor of failing our democracy by not calling fresh elections to form a new government. It is a question of creating, after three and a half years from the beginning of the last government, a new government that can unify different political forces in an extraordinary effort that the current economic and financial emergency demands. The full confrontation between the different parties will resume as soon as citizens go again to the polls for election of a new parliament.
What I am proposing today is difficult, I know, after years of conflicts and confrontations in national politics, and many unheeded appeals for moderation, and to non-destructive confrontation, to a greater co-operation and cohesion on choices and basic objectives. But, respecting the positions of all and knowing that the decision in the end is ultimately up to Parliament, I trust that you will assist Senator Professor Mario Monti in his efforts to form a new government. Senator Professor Mario Monti is an independent personality, who has always remained above the political fray, and at the same time has skills and experiences that make him a well known and respected figure in Europe and in the wider international community.
Now is the time to show maximum responsibility. It is not the time to pay off old scores nor for sterile partisan recriminations. It is time to re-establish a climate of calmness and mutual respect.
We all have to act for the common good over the next few months to bring the country out of the worst of the financial crisis. This, I believe, is what Italy will wish."
