Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: dal Wall Street Journal : Roman Circus

ovvero la rappresentazione di un' italia ormai in declino, ostaggio di
scandali e voti di fiducia, vittima della cosidetta politica del
"fare"
"Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to put his government
to a no-confidence vote next month. That would be the fourth time this
summer, and the second since a split in Mr. Berlusconi's center-right
coalition emerged last month to threaten his parliamentary majority.
The latest installment in this Roman soap opera, coming next month,
ostensibly concerns Mr. Berlusconi's sweeping five-point plan for the
country: greater fiscal autonomy for Italy's regions, tax cuts and a
simplified tax code, development and infrastructure spending for
southern Italy; crackdowns on illegal immigration and organized crime,
and an overhaul to the justice system.
Oh, and all that is completely non-negotiable: "Should cohesion be
lacking on even one of these five points. . . . We would refuse to let
the reforms we have pledged be negotiated down," Mr. Berlusconi was
quoted as saying in the Corriere della Sera on Monday, adding that if
his plan doesn't win majority support in its entirety, "the only way
forward" will be early elections.
.But nobody in his fractured coalition seems to disagree with the
thrust of the plan. The only real points of contention are with the
judicial reforms, though mainly because they would alleviate legal
pressures on the embattled Premier himself. On the need for pro-growth
reforms in particular, the Italian right remains united.
So why the ultimatum? Well, this is Italy. Mr. Berlusconi is gambling—
cleverly, according to most polls—that he and his remaining allies
would fare well in a snap election, while squeezing out some of the
troublesome dissenters led by Mr. Berlusconi's erstwhile ally
Gianfranco Fini. Mr. Fini led more than 30 lawmakers out of Mr.
Berlusconi's coalition late last month after attacking the ethics of
some of Mr. Berlusconi's friends. Mr. Fini also opposed a
controversial measure passed in the Senate in June to restrict
wiretapping (the measure was tied to a confidence vote, naturally),
and has suggested that politicians under investigation should resign—a
proposal that would dispose of some of Mr. Berlusconi's cohorts.
Meanwhile, Italy declines. Voters have elected Mr. Berlusconi three
times on promises to shrink the state. What they've gotten instead is
an endless parade of no-confidence votes, petty scandals, relative
economic stagnation and sclerotic bureaucracy. To take just one
example, the World Bank says it takes an average of 1,210 days to
enforce a contract in Italy, and that such government "service" costs
a medium-sized Italian company 68.4% of its profits.
Given this shambles, it's a testament to Italians' ingenuity and verve
that they still manage to produce some of the world's most successful
brands and maintain a reasonable standard of living. Imagine what they
could achieve if Mr. Berlusconi weren't holding his promises of
Italian dynamism hostage to political bloodsport."

 Italian dynamism hostage to political bloodsport."
Oh, ma ci prendono per i fondelli proprio tutti, eh.

 Oh, ma ci prendono per i fondelli proprio tutti, eh.
Soap Opera :)