Berlusconi Defiant as EU’s Focus Shifts to Italy

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he alone can deliver the country’s promised deficit cuts as European leaders ramp up demands that his government do its part to combat the region’s debt crisis. Berlusconi ruled out early elections and said the current legislature in Rome will last until 2013, according to an interview published yesterday in Corriere della Sera. He said the European Central Bank’s support will only be maintained if his administration follows through on the pledged measures. “Only I and my government can achieve this reform program for 18 months, which is why there is no way for me to stand aside,” the Italian leader told the newspaper. The European Union’s latest package of measures failed to staunch a rise in Italian borrowing costs, with an Oct. 28 bond sale sending yields to a euro-era record and damping the euphoria unleashed after the summit that ended the day before. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker insisted that Italy should deliver “substantial structural reform.” “We’re watching very closely,” Juncker said in an interview yesterday on Germany’s ARD. “Italy can’t simply do what suits it, but rather act as we’ve agreed together.” Leaders from the Group of 20 largest economies will convene in Cannes, France, this week after European leaders agreed to bolster the region’s rescue fund to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), persuaded bondholders to incur 50 percent losses on Greek debt and agreed on a plan shore up banks.

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