Oddly some of Mr Berlusconi’s longtime critics are among those fretting that this would be unwise. They support the view he expressed this week that, at a time of new bond-market jitters and jangling economic nerves, Italy would suffer “great harm” if he were ousted, because it would enter a new period of political instability. […]
It is a tempting argument, but it is wrong. For the stability that Mr Berlusconi’s continuation in office offers is illusory. Every new scandal saps his authority and exposes him (and, incidentally, his country) to renewed ridicule. With Mr Fini preparing to launch a new party and the Northern League, another party in the coalition, eager for an early election, the threat of a government collapse has become perpetual. The debt markets may not be concerned about Italy right now, because it skipped the banking and property bubbles that burst elsewhere. But in the longer term the colossal size of Italy’s public debt, the pension and health-care burden arising from its ageing population and its continuing loss of competitiveness are bigger worries than the odd bust bank.
In truth, what Mr Berlusconi really offers is not stability but stagnation. Far from steering Italy skilfully past the many dangers that confront it, his government has become almost totally paralysed. Mr Berlusconi’s legal and other preoccupations have distracted him and his ministers from the pursuit of any of the hard reforms that are necessary to restore the economy to long-term health. Even the first triumph of his current government, trumpeted so loudly after it was formed in 2008, the clearing up of garbage in and around Naples, has proved ephemeral: the stinking piles of rubbish are back.
This newspaper opposed Mr Berlusconi from the start. Many Italians have disagreed with us, convinced that only an outsider could bring change. Now they have nothing: just an ageing Lothario clinging to power. Radical reform demands a new champion, whether from left, right or centre, to take on entrenched vested interests and push the cause.
At the end of Leoncavallo’s opera “Pagliacci”, Canio the clown steps forward, after stabbing Silvio, to tell the audience “La commedia è finita.” The curtain should now fall on the tragicomic reign of today’s Silvio, too.
The Economist, 4 novembre 2010, via Internazionale, clamoroso ritorno.