Magazine / Politics / Italy / From the press | 03/04/2008

Italy in Crisis?

Italy has many problems: inflation, umemployment, corruption, piles of refuse and last, but not least, an unstable political situation. Is change in the offing?

euro|topics-Dossiers

Main focus of Thursday, 31. January 2008

Italy gets interim government

In the wake of the fall of Romano Prodi's government last week, Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano opted for the solution of appointing an interim government ... » more

Main focus of Friday, 25. January 2008

Italians are thrust back into political incertitude

Romano Prodi, head of the Italian government, lost a vote of confidence held in the Senate on January 24th (161 votes against him and 156 ... » more

Main focus of Wednesday, 23. January 2008

The Italian government fights for survival

A small party this week withdrew from the ruling coalition so threatening its survival. Head of government Romano Prodi is seeking a vote of confidence ... » more

Main focus of Wednesday, 9. January 2008

Naples' trash problem symbolizes Italy's crisis

The southern Italian city of Naples is mired in trash which hasn't been removed for weeks. Now, Prime Minister Romano Prodi wants to bring in ... » more

Main focus of Thursday, 8. November 2007

The deportation of Romanian immigrants from Italy

Italy is taking a hard line against Romanians and the Roma following the deathly attack on an italian woman by a Romanian of Roma origin. ... » more

Main focus of Tuesday, 16. October 2007

Veltroni becomes leader of Italy's democrats

On Sunday October 14th, Walter Vertroni, Mayor of Rome, was voted leader of Italy's new Democratic Party (DP) by a sweeping majority. The 52-year-old is ... » more

Main focus of Friday, 23. February 2007

Crisis of government in Italy

Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi has resigned following the government's defeat in a Senate vote. European commentators see this as a symtom of the general ... » more

Main focus of Thursday, 2. November 2006

An upsurge of crime in Naples

A series of assasinations and mafia paybacks have been bloodying the streets of the biggest city in Southern Italy over the past week. As the ... » more

Main focus of Tuesday, 27. June 2006

Italy rejects regional autonomy

A referendum on constitutional reforms mooted by Silvio Berlusconi while he was still in office was rejected by 61.3% of Italians in a two-day referendum ... » more

Main focus of Wednesday, 12. April 2006

The lessons of the Italian election

Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition eked out the narrowest of victories against Silvio Berlusconi's camp in legislative elections, claiming a razor-thin majority in the Senate of ... » more

Elections in Italy

La Repubblica - Italy | Wednesday, 13. February 2008

Abortion isn't a campaign issue

As the election campaign starts out in Italy, the question of abortion is already emerging as a hot-button issue. On February 11th, the leader of ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Tuesday, 12. February 2008

Veltroni shakes-up Italian politics

On Sunday, February 10th, Walter Veltroni, leader of the Democratic Party (PD, centre-left), launched his campaign for Prime Minister in the lead-up to legislative elections ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Wednesday, 21. November 2007

The explosion of the Italian right

Silvio Berlusoni has created a fracture within his own camp by announcing the creation of his new party. Edmondo Berselli ponders the tumultuous events that ... » more

La Stampa - Italy | Wednesday, 31. October 2007

Walter Veltroni, a political model?

"Walter Veltroni, the leader of the new left-wing party in Italy [PD, democratic party], is being given an enthusiastic welcome by both his friends and ... » more

La Stampa - Italy | Monday, 8. October 2007

Too many political parties in Italy

"The number of Italian politicial parties increases monthly, weekly, and now, daily," writes columnist Luca Ricolfi. After the Grillo list (named after the famous Italian ... » more

La Stampa - Italy | Thursday, 20. September 2007

Beppe Grillo seduces left-wing Italians

The editorialist Augusto Minzolini considers the emergence of Beppe Grillo in Italian public life. "The comedian masterminded the Vday demonstration organised on September 8th to ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Monday, 4. December 2006

The Berlusconi myth remains intact

Following the initiative of Silvio Berlusconi, a demonstration gathered together more than 700,000 people in Rome on Saturday, December 2nd, against the tax increase planned ... » more

General

Libération - France | Thursday, 13. March 2008

Giancarlo de Cataldo describes the Italian penchant for emergency

The Italian author Giancarlo de Cataldo considers that Italians always wait for emergency situations to arise before acting on complex problems such as immigration, fires ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Tuesday, 29. January 2008

Marc Lazar sees France as a model for Italy

The French researcher Marc Lazar compares the political situations in France and in Italy. "Since January 21st, Italy has been going through a new political ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Friday, 28. December 2007

2008, a bad year for Italy

The journalist Francesco Merlo contemplates the prospect of the year about to begin. "What can we wish upon Italy on the verge of 2008? What ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Thursday, 22. December 2005

The decline of Italian innovation

Following the tumultuous departure from Milan's La Scala [opera house] of an upset Ricardo Muti, the journalist Francesco Merlo offers a litany of ailments afflicting ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Thursday, 25. October 2007

The Italian landscape must be saved

An appeal to save the Italian landscape from being further disfigured by an increasing number of buildings has been signed by architects, historians and writers ... » more

Corriere della Sera - Italy | Wednesday, 22. August 2007

Michele Salvati calls for more civil responsibility in Italy

The Italian professor of political economy Michele Salvati considers that "Italy is a rich country and has its place among other western countries, but it ... » more

L'Espresso - Italy | Thursday, 16. August 2007

Robert Saviano on the plight of southern Italy

With 800,000 copies sold, the novel 'Gomorra' has made the Camorra's most powerful family, the Casalesi clan, famous. It's author, the Italian writer Roberto ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Tuesday, 12. June 2007

Swimming has become a luxury in Italy

"Please can I go in, look at the sea and stretch my legs on the beach a bit ? Certainly Sir, that'll be 14 euros." ... » more

Refuse and Naples

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland | Friday, 1. February 2008

Maike Albath on Naples' trash mountains

After visiting Naples, Maike Albath wonders why the mountains of trash are still burning. She finds an answer in the books of Neapolitan novelist Domenico ... » more

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland | Monday, 18. December 2006

The Camorra in Naples

Last spring Roberto Saviano's report on the mafia titled "Gomorra" caused a major stir. Francesco Durante, editor in chief of the Italian daily Corriere del ... » more

Mafia

Corriere della Sera - Italy | Thursday, 13. March 2008

Italian politicians should continue to fight the mafia

The journalist and writer Roberto Saviano, author of 'Gomorra', an explosive investigation of the mafia, is intervening in the debate leading up to Italian legislative ... » more

La Stampa - Italy | Thursday, 21. February 2008

The mafia in Calabria and Al-Qaeda work the same way

In its annual report published on February 20th, the Italian Parliament's anti-mafia commission considers that the Calabrian mafia is organised like Al-Qaeda and has become ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Wednesday, 16. January 2008

Elena Ferrante on the waste disposal crisis in Naples

The successful writer concealed by the pseudonym Elena Ferrante deplores the situation Naples is currently stuck in. "Rats and dogs are the kings of the ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Friday, 17. August 2007

Italian inertia in the face of mafia wars

Giuseppe d'Avanzo analyses the response to the murders, on August 15th, of six Italians in Duisbourg, killings that have been connected to mafia clan feuding: ... » more

Culture

Corriere della Sera - Italy | Wednesday, 7. November 2007

Contemporary art does not interest Italians

"Italy is backward-looking and ignores contemporary art", complains Monique Veaute, the new director of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the property of the French François ... » more

La Repubblica - Italy | Saturday, 1. September 2007

Ermanno Olmi ponders Italian cinema's current crisis

Numerous Italian film-makers are currently questioning Italian cinema's current crisis in the press. For the Italian film-maker Ermanno Olmi, film is only the reflection of ... » more

Corriere della Sera - Italy | Wednesday, 29. August 2007

For Ernesto Galli della Loggia on Italian cinema's search of an identity

The historian Ernesto Galli della Loggia notes that 'Italian cinema is suffering from an identity crisis that reflects the crisis the country is going through. ... » more

Football

Frankfurter Rundschau - Germany | Tuesday, 13. November 2007

The power of Italian football fans

"Few states have failed as miserably as Italy in the battle against football violence," Rouven Schellenberger writes, commenting on the riots in Italy following the ... » more

Italian Cuisine

Corriere della Sera - Italy | Thursday, 21. February 2008

Stop imitating Italian cuisine!

Columnist Beppe Severgnini has jumped to the defence of authentic Italian cuisine. "Stop eating fake Italian cuisine. Stop sanctifying anybody that has a name that ends ... » more

Corriere della Sera - Italy | Wednesday, 30. January 2008

Neapolitan pizza has everyone agreeing

Journalist Paolo Conti notes that amid the political turmoil, one government move has brought parties together. "In the middle of a political crisis, Romano Prodi's ... » more

Financial Times - United Kingdom | Thursday, 27. December 2007

The Italian expresso strong enough to keep Starbucks away

Adrian Michaels, the paper's Milan correspondent, reflects on why Italy is not among the 43 countries where the café chain Starbucks has set up shop. ... » more

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