Business | General
Berlusconi suffers another credibility blow
Aftershocks have rocked the Italian town of L'Aquila, where the Group of 8 summit is due to open this week.
- The Guardian
- Published: 22:53 July 5, 2009
Rome: Aftershocks have rocked the Italian town of L'Aquila, where the Group of 8 summit is due to open this week.
The tremors, which have reached 4.1 on the Richter scale, have forced the Italians to consider moving the conference and newspapers are reporting that the security concerns for leaders, including Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, could cause the summit to move to Rome.
In the meantime, briefing papers that have gone out to all eight leaders contain a sheet of instructions in the event of an earthquake, a British diplomat confirmed.
The logistical nightmare for delegates and their security as well as the charities, observers, journalists and strategists booked to attend the summit are further complications for what is becoming the most chaotic G8 ever.
It is also another credibility blow to Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, the current G8 president. His perfomances on both the world stage and in his private life have been subjected to derision.
Diplomatic eyebrows were raised when Berlusconi decided to move the conference from Sardinia - where work building a G8 conference centre was way over budget - to the site of April's earthquake, which left 300 dead and 53,000 people still homeless.
Much was made of how leaders would stay in "barracks" at L'Aquila, a police college, setting a suitably austere tone to discussions on climate change and economic disaster.
Guido Bertolaso, the civil protection chief, said the compound could withstand an earthquake stronger than April's 5.8 magnitude, but aftershocks this week are reported to have sent crockery crashing to the ground.
The Italian green group Legambiente said the decision was always madness.
Spokesman Maurizio Gubbiotti said: "The homeless are already having a miserable time and this G8 will restrict their movements even more. Is it wise to get over 3,000 people up there to the conference while aftershocks rumble on?"
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