Same old mess

摘要

Politics in Italy has regressed. In the past six years, various coalitions have come and gone. Four governments have collapsed. A solid new movement of the centre has failed to establish itself, especially since the man who looked best placed to build one, Romano Prodi, went off to Brussels to preside over the European Commission. And in the past few weeks roughly the same awkward alliances that were cobbled together in the wake of the corruption scandals in the early 1990s seem to have re-emerged. This old-new line-up does not bode well either for Italian political stability or for economic or constitutional reform.