Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
empire extended to conquests over two nearly defenseless targets: the farmers of
primitive Albania and the poison gas-aided victory over the tribes of Ethiopia.
While many Italians embraced Mussolini as a newfound symbol of national pride,
an equal number took part in the anti-fascist Partisan movement. The Allies
invaded Sicily in 1943, and the Italian army surrendered about a minute later, but
remaining German troops and Italian fascists fought rear-guard actions through
the country until 1945. The Partisans caught up to Mussolini in 1945 and strung
his body (and that of his mistress) upside down from a gas station roof.
Postwar Italy provided a replay of prewar politics, with fascist- and commu-
nist-dominated parties fighting for control of the country, struggles that continue
to the present day. Following World War II, the U.S. Marshall Plan channeled
huge sums of money to anti-communist elements in Italy. While this led many
die-hard fascists right back into the government, it also stimulated a rapid indus-
trialization program that improved the standard of living across the country.
Since then, the saying is that there have been 50 changes of government in the
50 years after the war, but most of these were really different permutations of the
same ruling party and shifting coalition partners. In the 1970s, a low-level civil
war nearly arose, with communist Red Brigade terrorists kidnapping and killing
politicians, and fascist power brokers staging civilian bombings and arrests.
Beginning in 1999, Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government (including neofascist
and racist groups) imposed some level of stability in the country, despite a series
of corruption scandals. Because Berlusconi owns or controls seven of eight TV
stations in the country, as well as Italy's largest publishing company, it's not sur-
prising that many of these scandals don't get much play in the local press. In May
2006, Romano Prodi, of the center-left coalition, was elected prime minister.
