The law’s critics argued, correctly, that the new measure was designed to make the country all but ungovernable in Mr Berlusconi’s absence. Only a decisive victory at the polls can yield a workable majority in both houses of parliament. Anything less will either produce conflicting majorities in the two chambers (which have equal political power) or a razor-thin majority in the Senate, giving immense powers of leverage to tiny parties and often to individual senators. It was this that constrained, and ultimately doomed, Mr Prodi. Even the man who drafted the 2005 law later called it “a load of rubbish”.
Appunti di un anonimo italiano
31/1/2008
