ROME (MNI) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Saturday he
plans to resign once the parliament passes Italy’s 2013 budget law.

His announcement ended days of speculation about a possible
government crisis and snap elections.

The Premier’s surprise announcement came two days after former
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party withdrew its
support for the Monti government in parliament, walking out from one
vote of confidence and abstaining from a second.

Monti made his plans public after meeting late in the evening with
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to whom, according to Italy’s
constitution, he would have to tender his resignation.

Monti, a former EU Commissioner, was chosen in November 2011 to
lead the country amidst Italy’s spiraling debt crisis and concern over
the longevity of the 17-nation Eurozone, following Berlusconi’s
resignation.

In recent weeks, Berlusconi’s PDL has increasingly attacked Monti’s
technocratic government, a shift that has coincided with Berlusconi’s
own intention to once again seek the post of prime minister in the
Italian general elections now expected to take place in February.

“I am handing in my resignation since it is impossible to continue
like this,” Monti told Napolitano, according to the Italian daily Il
Corriere della Sera.

Italian media have reported that the Italian parliament is expected
to pass next year’s budget by 2013.

Monti’s resignation announcement was made a few hours after
Berlusconi announced that he plans to run in the upcoming elections. The
former prime minister made the comments at Maranello, the training venue
of his family-owned Milan football team.

A poll earlier this month carried out by the SWG institute saw the
centre-left Democratic party with support of 30.3% and Berlusconi’s PDL
party with only 13.8%.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Sunday urged
that the Italian elections not become an obstacle to Monti’s economic
reforms, international concern over the nation’s political crisis
mounts.

Standard & Poor’s on Friday warned that Italy’s economy could
continue to contract in the second half of 2013, citing political
uncertainty as one of the factors.

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