Quick look at Italy , Spain and France - European political and economic updates.....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-23/mario-monti-generously-offers-stay-italys-unelected-head

Mario Monti Generously Offers To Stay On As Italy's Unelected Head

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/23/2012 09:44 -0500

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Yesterday, the man planted by Goldman to be Italy's unelected leader in November 2011, officially stepped down and shortly thereafter his government was dissolved in advance of the February 25, 2013 elections. Yet Monti, under whose helm Italy has been in deep recession since the middle of last year, where consumer spending is falling at its fastest rate since World War Two and unemployment has risen to a record high above 11 percent, and whose candidacy is vastly unpopular with the Italian population,moments ago generously offered to continue being Italy's unelected leader: just the way Europe's political masterclass and its central bankers want it, if not so much Italy's people.

 After all, the only thing that has stabilized in Europe, however briefly, is its peripheral bond market, which is merely a function of Draghi's willingness to risk future monetary instability and runaway inflation in order to bring sovereign bond yields under control: yields which are only hit record highs because the local governments have proven time and again unable and unwilling to make hard structural reforms (and where austerity continues to be a widely misused synonym for government corruption and incompetence). And as long as yields represent not reality but the motives of a few unelected central-planners, nothing will truly change for the better in Europe.

From Reuters:

The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, resigned on Friday but has faced growing calls to seek a second term at the election on February 24-25.

Speaking at a year-end news conference, Monti stressed he was not now entering any political movement and that he was more concerned about his policy prescriptions being followed than personalities standing in the election.

Nonetheless, he said that if a political force or coalition offered a credible program that he supported, "I would be ready to offer my encouragement, advice and if necessary leadership."

Asked if that meant he was ready to stand as prime minister again he said: "If a credible political force asked me to run as prime minister for them I would consider it."

In other words, he won't run in the election, much the same way as last time, but he would be happy to continue his job as a PM, very much unelected. But it's not for him, it's for the children... Or perhaps Goldman.

Monti rejected suggestions that he was motivated by personal ambition to win political power.

"If I accept, it's to try to change the moral culture of the country.It's obvious it's not for my personal convenience," he said.

Obviously.... Realistically would Monti even stand a chance if he ran?

Monti has been strongly urged to stand by centrist groups ranging from disaffected former Berlusconi allies to the small UDC party, which is close to the Catholic church.

Monti said he hoped the next government would have an ample parliamentary majority and believed the traditional left-right divide was no longer adequate to tackle the problems facing Italy.

If he does enter the race, he will face strong opposition from Berlusconi, whom he criticized sharply during the course of his remarks, saying he had been "bewildered" by the 76 year-old billionaire media tycoon's frequent changes of position.

While numerous European leaders and Italy's business elite have called for his economic agenda to continue, ordinary Italians, weary of tax hikes and spending cuts imposed to cut a huge public debt, are less enthusiastic.

A centrist group headed by him would probably come a distant third or even fourth in the election and one survey published last week showed 61 percent of Italians felt he should not stand.

Of course, the above would be a valid consideration if any democratic principles were still respected and followed in Europe - a continent that over the past 3 years has become an unelected globalist's wet dream, and where any chance of uprising by the great unwashed is promptly quelled with threats that all accured entitlements (which are non-existent anyway), will be promptly pulled, and the "great austerity" will get even deeper.

So Italy can look forward to yet another window dressing government: one which pretends to do the bidding of the people, yet one which merely relies on the Central Bank's generosity in keeping rates low, while no real reforms continue to be implemented, in hopes that the great credit bubble ver 2.0 offsets any structural economic disincentives, and internal imbalances are merely offset by yet another bout of credit-funded consumption, all of which of course leading to an even faster and more uncontrolled unwind when it finally takes place, this time however without the benefit of the central banks' backstop activity.

 

and....







http://www.businessinsider.com/mario-monti-will-not-run-for-re-election-2012-12

Mario Monti Leaves Open Possibility Of Running Again

Joe Weisenthal | Dec. 23, 2012, 6:41 AM | 116 | 1

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Italian Embassy at www.flickr.com

At a big press conference, outgoing Italian PM Mario Monti strongly suggested that he isn't going to run for PM again.Instead he said he would publish ideas that he hoped another party would adopt.

However, according to Fabrizio Goria, he's slightly leaving the possibility open of still running.

Were he not to run, that would be a disappointment to many in Europe, as Monti had been a good "team player" with other European leaders, while also doing a solid job passing budgets and reforms internally.

Open Europe@OpenEurope

So Monti will let Italian political parties make the first move. He won't run for seat in parliament, but would consider premiership offer

and...




http://www.france24.com/en/20121220-spain-car-auto-industry-flexibility-unions

For Spanish auto workers, jobs come at a price

© Clément Perrouault

With the car industry offering rare prospects for investment in crisis-hit Spain, unions and workers are coming under intense pressure to accept working conditions previously deemed unthinkable.

By Adeline PERCEPT reporting from Spain (text)

A glimmer of hope could be emerging in crisis-wracked Spain. At least that's what some analysts dare to say following a recent wave of investments by major car manufacturers.

On Wednesday, Japan's Nissan became the latest carmaker to raise the prospect of new jobs in the sector, announcing that its Barcelona plant may be selected to build one of its new models in 2014.

The 130-million-euro investment would see 1,000 new jobs created - a much-needed boon in a country where one in four are unemployed. But the good news is dependent on one key condition: that trade unions make “an effort to be more flexible and solve the problem of salary costs”, said Frank Torres, CEO of Nissan Motor Ibérica.

With the economy deep in recession and unemployment showing no sign of receding, it is likely that the unions at the Nissan factory in Barcelona will accede to the request.

Others have already agreed to concessions that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Unions at Renault have even accepted a deal for new workers to be paid 800 euros a month, 30 percent less than the existing wage. In return, the French manufacturer has promised to invest in its factories in the cities of Valladolid, Palencia and Seville, creating 1,300 jobs.

'Total lack of solidarity'

Union leader Javier Carnero likens the struggle to remain competitive to a full-out war. © Clément Perrouault

“During the negotiations, they used all the arguments possible to put pressure on us, notably workers’ fear of ending up unemployed ”, says Jesus Janez-Hermoso, member of the CCOO union in Valladolid.

Ford, Seat and PSA have also invested in their Spanish factories during the past months. At the Seat plant in Martorell (Catalonia), union member Javier Carnero compares negotiations to full-out war on a European scale.

“Every union in every factory is defending its own guys,” he said. “And there’s a total absence of solidarity. At the end of the day, either we have to suffer the consequences or others have to. And of course I defend the interests of workers here who have elected me and whom I represent.”

In order to keep production at their factory, workers at Seat have accepted a system of “banking hours”. They have to work longer hours when demand is high and fewer hours when things are slow.

The greater flexibility accepted by Spanish workers has raised alarm in neighbouring France, where unionists feel they’re fighting the war with unequal weapons.

According to a recent study by Coe-Rexecode, salaries in Spanish manufacturing have fallen by 9.8 percent since 2008. Meanwhile, they’ve increased by 5.3 percent in France.

'Adapt or die'

Car parts supplier Emilio Orta says the industry must "adapt or die". © Clément Perrouault

Emilio Orta, the head of car parts supplier MetTecno 2000, which is based in the Valencia area, has a clear idea of what Spanish manufacturers need to do.

“We’ve been placed in the following situation: either you adapt or you die,” he said.

Orta has reached a deal with his employees, who have accepted flexible hours similar to those applied at Seat. He says workers have changed their mentality in Spain.

“People really value their job now. And that’s why they are prepared to reinvent themselves, to train themselves. They accept whatever it takes to hang on to their job”, he says.

If the case of Spain's auto industry is anything to go by, the country's path out of crisis is set to be a slow and painful process.

and...

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/21/279421/french-economy-to-shrink-in-q4-2012/

French economy to contract in Q4 2012: INSEE

Recent data show that French economy is set to contract in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:29PM GMT

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France National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) says the French economy is set to contract by 0.2 % percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 as the eurozone continues to grapple with economic woes.

“Activity should thus fall in Q4 2012 (-0.2%), notably because manufacturing production is set to fall back …,” INSEE said in its December forecasting report on Friday.

INSEE data also revealed that the country’s jobless rate is expected to jump above 10 percent during the period. 

Since President Francois Hollande took office in May 2012, a further 230,000 people have registered as jobless.

Reports say France is heading for a recession by the end of 2012.

Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland.

The worsening debt crisis has forced the EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries. 

and....