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 and waste disposal. "A matter of 'emergency' is our incapacity to manage the ordinary tensions of a western democracy. ... But anybody who thinks that Italy is hostage to a cast of enslaved politicians and journalists suffocating the vital impulse of an honest and generous population is mistaken, despite what civil society is claiming. Italians react badly to calls for the use of measure and good sense. The Italians love to reason with their guts. And a sensational news report or a populist's demagogical rant, with its questionable vocabulary, has a far stronger impact on guts than a well-argued debate. The taste for emergency comes from below, the elite is only adapting to it".

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