ROME (AP) — Italy and the rest of Europe on Sunday anxiously awaited the reaction of financial markets to Premier Mario Monti’s surprise decision to resign and set the stage for an early vote, as speculation abounded over whether he might dive into politics and challenge Silvio Berlusconi in the election.
Monti has been widely credited with restoring faith in the country’s capacity to survive the eurozone debt crisis since he took over the helm of a non-elected “technocrat” government. But he told the Italian president Saturday it was impossible to continue to lead after Berlusconi’s party, Parliament’s largest, dropped its support and blamed his austerity measure for Italy’s staying mired in recession.
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