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“The commission president’s words were a mistake and I regret that she made them,” Italian Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri told reporters at a news conference on Saturday, stressing that Europe needs “a great Marshall Plan” to keep its economy afloat, RT reported.

The historic Marshall Plan was a massive US-led economic aid package to rebuild Western Europe after the devastation of WWII. Italy proposed that Brussels issue so-called ‘corona bonds,’ a common debt instrument aimed at funding the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made a significant dent in Europe’s economies by forcing businesses to shut down due to quarantine measures.

In an interview with DPA, von der Leyen did not rule out the idea of ‘corona bonds’ but said that they were “not the plan” the EU was working on. “The word corona bond is actually just a buzzword,” she said. The option was similarly dismissed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that creating ‘corona bonds’ was “not… the view of all EU countries.”

Von der Leyen’s words raised some eyebrows not only in Rome but inside the European Parliament, whose leader David Sassoli immediately asked the European Commission chief to clarify her stance.

Italy has been hit hardest by the coronavirus within the EU, with nearly 92,500 confirmed cases and over 10,000 deaths. On Saturday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte unveiled a €4.3 billion ($4.79 billion) stimulus package to help local authorities and regular citizens survive through the pandemic.

The European Central Bank (ECB), in turn, pledged to spend €750 billion ($836.2 billion) in bond purchases. However, officials in Italy and Spain, which is the second-hardest hit EU nation, insisted that a more common approach is needed.

“This is a crisis that is affecting all of the EU. We need to articulate a grand Marshall Plan of reconstruction,” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last week after the ECB plan was released.

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‎‎‎This comes as, in other countries, people are charged between $1,300 and $1,500 for a preliminary coronavirus test and ‎have to pay a lot of money for being hospitalized and receiving intensive care, Rouhani added ‎speaking at a meeting of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus on ‎Saturday, IRNA ‎reported.

He said thanks to its very strong foundations laid by the government over the past six ‎years, the domestic health system has not only managed to put in a brilliant performance since the ‎beginning of the coronavirus outbreak but will also be capable of continuing to provide ‎treatment services in case the crisis lingers on for a few more weeks and the spread of the virus reaches ‎another peak. ‎

Rouhani added the domestic health system is capable of doing this in view of its hospital capacity and thanks to efforts by Iranian physicians and nurses.

The president also congratulated the birth anniversary – this year falling on March 28 – of Imam Hussein (PBUH), the grandson of Prophet ‎Muhammad (PBUH) and third Imam of Shia.  ‎

He added in the current Iranian calendar year (which started on March 20), the best New Year gift Iranians can ‎give each other is their cooperation to overcome the crisis. ‎

Rouhani added Iran is not among the countries whose patients are laid on hospitals’ floors due to a bed ‎shortage or which use refrigerated trucks due to the large number of bodies. ‎

At present, all Iranians have united, more than ever, in the fight against coronavirus, Rouhani ‎stressed. ‎

He emphasized that Iran is not among the countries where nothing can be found on the shelves in grocery ‎stores after 10:00 a.m., adding, “In our country, large stores are open round-the-clock.” ‎

Rouhani added in phone conversations with provincial governors he had been informed that they had no problem in terms of supplying basic goods and hygiene products to their citizens.”

Praising collective efforts in Iran since the beginning of the outbreak, he said all the refineries, power plants and ‎wastewater treatment facilities across the country, as well as the nationwide transportation network, are ‎operating. ‎

The president added the country’s Armed Forces are also actively providing services to people, which is a great honor ‎for the Islamic Republic. ‎

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