01.26.08
The fall of the Italian Government
And just like that, we’re back to 2005 in Italy. Late Thursday night, the Prime Minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, faced a vote of no confidence. He lost.
The news describes the events by saying “the government failed.” In Italy, if the Prime Minister gets the boot, every single law that was passed during the time he was in charge is voided. There’s confusion everywhere because no one can quite remember what’s valid and what’s not. Prodi made quite a few reforms in the application process for foreigners who live in Italy, and no one knows yet what laws will stick and what reverts back to before (the new government can opt to keep some of the old government’s laws).
It really is a miracle to me that Italy somehow moves forward (albeit slowly) when their government does this. I think the government has failed 17 times since World War II.
But in a testament to the underlying social stability, absolutely nothing in day-to-day life changed between Thursday and Friday. Everybody went to work. No rioting in the streets. Anyone I talked to about the government sort of rolled their eyes as if to say, “Here we go again.”