It was there that Lucifora and Masiero, joined by a handful of people, held up their sign outside the perimeter of the square, deciding to get attention in every way.

La Nacion

Bondholder protest before the Pope  

A group of Italians affected by the default tried to make themselves heard in Angelus, in St. Peter’s.

 

Monday, June 10, 2013

 

by Elisabetta Piqué  | LA NACION

 

ROME.-  A small group of Italian bondholders harmed by the default of 2001 yesterday used the noon Angelus of the Pope – which convenes some 100,000 people on St Peter’s Square – to protest against Argentina.  “Pope Francis think of the Italian savings taken by Argentina”, said the sign that was held by Gianfranco Lucifora and Orlando Masiero, two Italian bondholders that are not defeated and continue demanding their lost savings.

 

Both rejected the “miserable” offers to swap debt in default made by the Kirchner administration in 2005 and 2010 and insist that Argentina “make available its immense wealth” to return the money that was “swindled.”

 

The protest lasted a short time.  The Pope had not even taken to the window on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace – at 12 on the dot – when Italian police intervened for the small group to leave the square.  There, in fact, it is prohibited to hold political demonstrations.

 

It was there that Lucifora and Masiero, joined by a handful of people, held up their sign outside the perimeter of the square, deciding to get attention in every way.

 

"In reality, the Pope doesn’t have anything to do with our complaint, but just as President Cristina Kirchner when she met with him made a political request for the Malvinas, we also took advantage of this moment to ask that they return our money,” said Lucifora, who lost 100,000 euros of his savings placed in Argentina bonds.

 

Lucifora debated with various Argentine onlookers that, when seeing the sign, came up to him to say that, in reality, the guilty ones are the Italian banks.  “Swindlers!” the bondholder answered, accompanied by his sister Marisa.

 

"The problem is with the Argentine leadership class, not with the Pope nor with the Argentines.  My family lose 850,000 euros, my parents have died already and couldn’t see their savings return, but I will fight until the end to recover them.  Argentina cannot go on not paying its debt: if it continues like this, it will sink,” Masiero predicted.