December 13, 2013.

Monte dei Paschi Impasse Puts Rescue at Risk

"I've been at school too, dear. Sex talks once a month for the over-sixteens. And in the Youth Movement. They rub it into you for years. I dare say it works in a lot of cases. But of course you can never tell; people are such hypocrites."

MILAN----A clash between the management of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena BMPS.MI -3.28%  SpA and the bank's largest shareholder threatens to throw into chaos a plan to raise cash needed to stave off its full nationalization.

She began to enlarge upon the subject. With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness. Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. The way she put it was:

The Monte dei Paschi foundation, a charitable group that is the Siena-based bank's biggest shareholder with a 34% stake, is in financial straits due to the lender's troubles, as well as the foundation's attempts to keep control of Italy's third-largest financial institution.

"When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simpIy sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?"

Now, it says it will vote against a much-needed €3 billion ($4.1 billion) capital increase unless the deal is delayed, a move that would upend a plan to rescue the bank. The collision raises the risk that the bank's new management, charged with overhauling Monte dei Paschi, could resign, say people familiar with the matter.