Prodi's unhappy new year

摘要

Few European countries face a more crucial year than Italy. A general election on April 9th will decide whether Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, elected in 2001, continues in office. The controversies that always surround Mr Berlusconi, and even more his disappointing management of the economy, have made his government deeply unpopular. Italy badly needs radical reform, yet Mr Berlusconi's coalition, notionally committed to economic liberalism, has done precious little in its five years in office. Thus a much-hyped shake-up of the pension system will not now take effect until 2008. Labour-market reforms have been started but not expanded. A strengthening of the country's corporate-governance laws, pushed through just before the end of 2005, was a delayed response to the Parmalat scandal of 2003. And the economy has stuttered since Mr Berlusconi came to power. Most estimates of gdp growth last year are coming in at no more than 0.2%. This year Italy will once again have the slowest-growing economy in the European Union.