Italian PM warns of growing social unrest

Italian Premier Mario Monti: ‘Don’t give up now’ AP PHOTO/ALESSANDRA TARANTINO

ROME—Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti warned Sunday over tears in the nation’s social fabric, urging people not to “give up” in the face of record unemployment and sweeping austerity cuts.

Monti’s comments to a youth audience in central Tuscany came against a backdrop of rising social tensions in Italy, which has the eurozone’s highest national debt burden.

“Italy is currently gripped by strong social tensions. It’s normal that this precarious situation increases malaise, but we have to act together against the crisis,” Monti said. “Don’t give up now, we must make a common effort to share the burden.”

He warned also that the crisis could challenge Italians’ core values.

“Insecurity brings forth withdrawal, frustration, anger and aggression,” he said.

Italian newspapers have been crammed with tales of everyday woe, business failures and the effects of an unemployment rate pushing 10 percent.

One particularly shocking case is that of an Italian builder who died after setting himself on fire in March while he was being prosecuted for tax evasion.

Monti’s government has launched a wide-ranging crackdown on tax evasion as Italy struggles under a vast debt mountain, which is approaching two trillion euros ($2.6 trillion).

Despite the gloom, Monti also said he believed the European political model “remained viable.”

“It is Italy’s duty to stop it from going backwards,” he said.

Acknowledging it would have a recessionary effect, Monti pushed through a tough austerity budget when he took control of the government in November, after Silvio Berlusconi was pushed out of power by a wave of market panic and a parliamentary revolt.

In another sign of unrest, an anarchist group on Friday claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on a nuclear power executive.