Motion for a resolution | Doc. 13564 | 01 July 2014

Inquiring improper pressure and interferences by European Union officials to cause the Berlusconi government to resign in autumn 2011

Signatories: Ms Deborah BERGAMINI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Francesco Maria AMORUSO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Viorel Riceard BADEA, Romania, EPP/CD ; Ms Anna Maria BERNINI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Ms Elena CENTEMERO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Agustín CONDE, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Luca D'ALESSANDRO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Joseph DEBONO GRECH, Malta, SOC ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Şaban DİŞLİ, Turkey, EPP/CD ; Mr Claudio FAZZONE, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Giuseppe GALATI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Valeriu GHILETCHI, Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD ; Mr Francesco Maria GIRO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Thierry MARIANI, France, EPP/CD ; Sir Alan MEALE, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Pieter OMTZIGT, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Mr Gabino PUCHE, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr François ROCHEBLOINE, France, EPP/CD

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The former Treasury Secretary of the United States of America, Timothy Geithner, revealed that in Autumn 2011 in Cannes he received strong pressure from senior officials of the European Union to persuade the President of the United States to join “a scheme”. In his memoir, published in May 2014 and entitled “Stress test” Geithner wrote: “At a G-20 meeting in 2011, Europeans were pushing the White House to get involved in pushing bungabunga legend and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi out of office”. His answer at the time was: “We can’t have his blood on our hands”.

In November 2013, the former Spanish President Rodriguez Zapatero, in his book "El Dilema" (The dilemma), told that in reality Mario Monti had been nominated Prime Minister during the G20 in Cannes by Merkel, Sarkozy, Brussels Eurocrats and International Monetary Fund officials. This fact was later confirmed by Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi, member of the executive board of the ECB, in his book “Morire d’austerità” (Dying of austerity). Other press enquiries reported on backdoor maneuvering to force the Italian Republic to replace Silvio Berlusconi with Mario Monti.

Those international pressures, together with disagreements within Parliament, were decisive in leading the President of the Italian Republic to ask for and obtain Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation and the simultaneous appointment of Mario Monti as Prime Minister.

Considering that such statements highlight an irregular functioning of democratic mechanisms within member States, the Parliamentary Assembly, which is called upon to monitor respect for democracy and the rule of law, should carry out a thorough investigation into their truthfulness.