Yes, forming coalitions in multiparty parliamentary democracies is difficult and messy. The Netherlands and Germany have both proved this recently and even the Conservatives in the UK had to reach a deal with the DUP after they failed to win a majority in the snap general election of 2017.
But Italy is an absolute mess. Now, I can’t say I’m disappointed as I think the 5 Star Movement is awful and there’s not much good I can say about the League. There doesn’t really seem to be a way to form a government right now and I’m disappointed that Italy seems to have given into stupid Euroscepticism and anti-immigrant backlash. Italy leaving the Euro would be a disaster, since we all remember how wonderful and stable the Italian Lira used to be.
So, what’s the solution? A caretaker government until new elections can be called? That seems to be the best of a bunch of bad ideas. Matteo Renzi seems to the best of the available leaders, so perhaps new elections would have him becoming Prime Minister again.
I disagree about the Eurozone. It has not served Spain, Cyprus or Greece well at all, and I don’t blame Italy for wanting out. They should get out, they should get out now, and so should the previously mentioned countries as well as Portugal.
The Euro is a “one-size-fits-all” solution in search of a problem. It works very well for France and Germany, (which, quite frankly, is probably the only reason it’s still around), moderately well for about 6-8 other countries, and poorly for the rest of the Eurozone.
An old joke from the days of the country’s postwar political turmoil:
Two Italian parliamentarians are sitting on the backbenches late one afternoon as a debate goes on and on. Enzo whispers to his friend, “I think I’ll take a little nap, Luigi.”
“Go right ahead,” says Luigi.
Eventually Enzo wakes with a start, looks at his watch and realizes almost an hour has passed. “Did I miss anything, Luigi?” he asks.
Luigi shrugs. “Not really. But you were Prime Minister twice.”
A couple of weeks ago, I was telling an Italian colleague how I tried to read a local newspaper when I was there months earlier. With my native French, I could understand some articles relatively well, especially those that tackled subjects I was familiar with. Then, I said “But on the other hand, I didn’t understand any of the articles about Italian politics” and she burst out laughing, commenting “Even the Italians don’t understand Italian politics”.
So, with my limited knowledge of the situation, it doesn’t look good. Italy is not just a member of the Eurozone and Schengen, it’s one of the founding members of the EU. That, in itself, is worrying.
A caretaker government seems the way to go at the moment, indeed but I fear it’s not going to change anything when new elections are called. It might even make it worse…
I don’t think Greece, with their volatile politics, has served the Euro well, but there’s no doubt that having the Euro in Greece is far better than the old Drachma. Spain has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of being in the EU, Spain is a huge country and it now has a modern train system thanks to EU investment.
Well, the way she said it, it was clear that she meant it was an essential feature of Italian politics, not a recent trend.
The Italian President seems to have settled for a caretaker governement as expected, with new elections in early 2019. This will only reinforce the Eurosceptics I’m afraid.
Most of the Spanish train system was already in place on November 20th 1975. The new infrastructure is some AVE lines (AVE uses some of the old lines and some new ones), which have more to do with whose hands have been greased than with improving communications. These have been improved more by the regular updating of trains than by the big bill items. And designs by Talgo and FAC are consistently better than Siemens; when searching for reasons for Siemens purchases, see above. I’ve been in line behind people who, when faced with two trains that had similar times, asked whether either of them was a Talgo - “give me that one then”.
While I do consider that being in the EU has been a huge benefit for Spain, whether we’re going by “the territory of that name and the people who live there” or “the people of that nationality”, trains now run on time isn’t exactly what would have come to my mind.
It’s strange how the Italian President changed his mind, and finally gave this Eurosceptic coalition a chance. I can’t decide whether it’s the lesser of two evils in the short term or far worse in the long term, or… it’s confusing.