Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-05-Speech-3-191"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070905.21.3-191"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the collapse of the US market in high-risk loans has caused a splash that is still being felt on the stock markets today and which has thrown speculators and savers into serious crisis.
What the US real estate operators did is common knowledge: they offered loans, which were then defaulted on, to high-risk individuals, thus placing not only the financial products but also many banks in crisis. This year a very high percentage of borrowers has stopped paying the instalments owed, placing the entire system in crisis.
In Italy, apart from the stock-market movements, it appears that the crisis has only had a slight effect on the national banking system because Italian banks, apparently, are not directly exposed to sub-prime loans. This was not the case for many German, British and French banks and that is why we are having this debate today. Therefore the least we can hope for is the opening of an enquiry into the largest international credit rating agencies on their role in these events and thus action on financial instability and on the impact on the real economy.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to tell you what happens in Italy – because loans and home purchases in my country are significant – and let me recount to you what an important Italian weekly publication
said about the ethics of some Italian politicians (who, by the way, have also been our colleagues) in the face of the sufferings of so many savers and those who clamber to pay loans, when in fact a simple institution such as the social loan could make owning a house a reality. In the face of all this, listen to what
reveals about some Italian left-wing politicians – a fact that is worth emphasising – as well as some centrist figures, but above all left-wing ones.
These gentlemen, whose first and last names and addresses are listed, benefited from exceptionally favourable terms for purchasing property in Rome. Recommendations, you may say, are a practice, perhaps an accepted practice, and perhaps an ancient practice, in my country – and not just in Italy, but perhaps worldwide. However, when a recommendation is requested and the favour is obtained from a bank or insurance company, I ask myself, what is given in exchange by those in power?
According to the weekly publication, Mr Veltroni, Mr Prodi’s successor, Ms Cossutta, daughter of one of the most radical and committed communists, Mr Violante, former Prime Minister and among the most well-known arbiters of other people’s ethics, as well as Mr Marino, Mr Mancino, Mr Mastella, Mr Casini, Mr Proietti and Mr Baccini purchased houses in Rome with at times as many as 25-30 rooms at a quarter, if not less, of the market price, given these special terms by owners who, strangely enough, are banks and insurance companies.
Democracy has its costs, you may say, and as the proletariat had its costs so today does progressive socialism, which has inherited from its predecessors the ability to be specific in the pursuit of its own interests. If you are strangled by your mortgage month after month and, like me, you have the good fortune to suffer from it a little less thanks to this seat in Parliament and the activity of your spouse who now contributes, you should blame the communists, old and new, who have decided to liberalise taxi licences and the opening hours of barbers and to sell medicine in supermarkets, but have left the banks free to decide what sacrifices to impose on your families, to mortgage your futures and your lives.
You have only yourselves to blame, Italian and European citizens, if you have decided to do something other than pursue a career in one of the Italian parties that govern or have governed cities, regions and nations, and which in governing are governed by the banks."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"L'Espresso"1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples