02/05/2006 11:18:29 am
A Struggling Country. Yesterday, I returned to Stockholm from northern Italy. It is a country which is not only struggling with the short-term issue of having a functioning government. It also has great economic problems, due to the anti-social model of a big state, like the rest of Western Europe. Italy has the greatest need of all the European countries to do a pensions reform. It also needs liberalisations in other parts of the public sector and tax reform. But as in the other main Western European countries, there is a resistance to reform - not least from "insiders". Perhaps particularly from six million bureaucrats with a stake in preserving the system as it is. Berlusconi does have his disadvantages, but he is a forceful free-market reformer and even he didn′t manage to push through enough change during his five years. How would ever a Prodi government supported by communists succeed? And now, the big row that has unleashed a protectionist wave in the debate, is the possibility of the Autostrada company to be purchased by a foreign - Spanish - company. Still, it has to be said, it is funny how far away all the trouble seem when one reaches the beutiful countryside with its family and food traditions. Perhaps politics isn′t local after all?