Parties change, but Italian malaise continues

Corriere.it:

"Criticism of the government targets all areas of activity, to a greater or lesser extent. Three sectors do, however, come in for special censure: tax policies, pensions and justice."

One year after a switch in the national leadership to the Center-Left, Romano Prodi's government is no more popular than his predecessor Silvio Belusconi of the Center-Right was at the one year mark of his administration. The disaffection crosses party lines, however, and the recent municipal and provincial elections produced few significant shifts in partisan alignment.

“For fifteen years, Italy has been hostage to a transition that shows no signs of ending. For fifteen years, the country has been seeking a way out of the political crisis into which it has sunk”. But [outgoing head of the Confindustria business association] Luca Cordero di Montezemolo sees no signs of a much-needed change.

Three thousand assembled business and political leaders cheered Montezemolo's remarks which included such gems as: "The real Italy is better that some politicians think it is." Politics, he said, should no longer be “Italy’s leading industry with 180,000 elected representatives, more than France, the United Kingdom and Spain put together, for a total cost of four billion euros." Montezemolo also called for an end to political leaders “bobbing on the water waiting for the next elections” and spoke of the “duty to build today the country of tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, as if to illustrate Montezemolo's point, we read of the landfill crisis in Naples where the local authorities have let their municipal landfill reach the point where it must be closed without finding a suitable substitute. The result is 15,000 tons of trash piling up on the region's streets and angry residents setting fire to the rubbish piles while others engage in protest marches to express opposition to each of several replacement landfill sites. This is not the sort of crisis that occurs overnight. The paralysis of politics in Italy could not be demonstrated more starkly.