Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is vowing to reach a sweeping agreement with workers and businesses by next month amidst concerns over a mounting debt crisis. Italian lawmakers approved a $67 billion austerity package last month following prodding by the International Monetary Fund. On Thursday, Italian activist Gaetano Ferrieri marked the two-month anniversary of a hunger strike he has launched outside the Italian parliament to protest the austerity measures. Ferrieri is surviving on vitamin supplements.

Gaetano Ferrieri: “The idea is to manage and bring the people to preside over Parliament, to completely eliminate this political class, the Mafia, the Freemasons, the caste that has ruined this society, making the weakest pay—therefore, to get the bankers arrested, to get the corrupt politicians arrested, and to put together a new set of reforms for Italy.”