Italians Angry After ECB Admits It Slashed Purchases Of Italian Debt During Recent Crisis

Heading into the second half of May, just as the political turbulence in Italy was rising as investors took fright at 5-Star’s attempts to form a coalition government with the anti-immigrant League party, and what was initially a trickle of selling in Italian BTPs became a full-blown liquidation panic, some Italians wondered if the Mario Draghi wasn't using a page from the Sylvio Berlusconi playbook, by allowing Italian bonds to tumble without ECB intervention, simply to "pressure" the domestic political process against the formation of a populist, Euroskeptic cabinet, something European Budget Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger scandalously suggestedlast week when he said that "the negative development of the markets will lead Italians not to vote much longer for the populists.

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