The Italian jobs? Unemployed youth clash with police in Italy

About 3,000 unemployed demonstrators have clashed with riot police in Naples during a protest against rocketing youth unemployment. The violence erupted in the city after a visit by Labor Minister Elsa Fornero and left 23 people injured.

Protesters donned masks of the unpopular Fornero and waved banners calling for Prime Minister Mario Monti to step down. Fornero and the German labor minister, Ursula von der Leyen, are in Naples for talks on Italy’s economic and unemployment problems.A skirmish erupted when a breakaway group hurled stones and bottles at police, who returned fire with teargas, leaving 23 injured. Fornero infuriated many Italians when she told them last month not to be “choosy” when looking for work.Italy’s youth have borne the brunt of the economic crisis and government measures to tackle it do not appear to be working. Unemployment among 15-24-year-olds stood at 35.1 per cent in September, up 4.7 per cent on last year. Italy is laden with debt and entered into recession at the end of last year. The economic gloom has been exasperated by reports of corruption and misuse of public funds by officials and politicians. Italian prosecutors have filed charges of market manipulation against seven officials of the Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Fitch ratings agencies the rating agencies for a number of downgrades of Italy last year. An Italian expert said that firms like S&P and Fitch are meddling where they shouldn’t and creating hysteria in regard to Italian debt: “These agencies came out with declarations when the markets would be open and therefore this created a big cult [panic] on the markets about Italian sovereign debt.” Paolo Raffone told RT. S&P and Fitch say they are cooperating fully with the Italian inquiry.