Italian Crisis Developments

AGI reports that a group of PDL MPs are calling for a new executive and an enlarged majority urging Berlusconi to take a step back. Report here. Reuters from New York last evening, read here, reported that little had been agreed in the Cabinet Meeting last evening and that the bickering was continuing, while interest rates continue above the unsustainable 6% level for ten year borrowings.

The Washington Post has some detail regarding proposed emergency sales of real estate, linked here, from which comes this:

ROME — Italy’s Cabinet proposed legislation Wednesday to sell off government-owned real estate, encourage investment in infrastructure and privatize local public companies in a bid to avoid becoming the next victim of Europe’s debt crisis.....

Earlier, government officials had said the government might pass a decree containing some of the measures to show the EU and markets that Italy had taken solid action. In the end, the Cabinet decided to proceed on the legislative track, reportedly after Italy’s president suggested the measures would enjoy greater legitimacy if passed by parliament.

The Irish Times, linked here, opens its report with the following:

ON THE eve of today’s G20 summit in Cannes, the government of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was last night looking shaky, having been undermined by reports suggesting that as many as 11 members of his People Of Freedom party have signed a document calling on him to step down.