Austere professor deserves respect

MARIO Monti, who intends to resign after just over a year as Italy’s prime minister, restored international credibility to his country and dragged it back from the brink of financial collapse.

The 69-year-old former European commissioner replaced the Silvio Berlusconi in November last year as skyrocketing borrowing costs threatened to plunge Italy into a Greek-style debt crisis.

Now it is the withdrawal of Berlusconi’s support in parliament that has prompted his decision to go once next year’s budget is approved, a few months before polls expected in March.