Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Clean Hands, Berlusconi & Five Star
A growth spurt in the aftermath of WWII saw Italy become one of the world's leading eco-
nomies, but by the 1970s the economy had begun to stagnate, and by the mid-1990s a new
and prolonged period of crisis had set in. High unemployment and inflation, combined with
a huge national debt and mercurial currency (the lira), led the government to introduce Dra-
conian measures to cut public spending, allowing Italy to join the single currency (euro) in
2001.
Claudia Cardinale starred in the 1984 Italian film
Claretta
, about the racy life and tragic end of
Clara Petacci, Mussolini's lover. Given the chance to flee when they were captured, she instead
tried in vain to shield Il Duce from the partisan execution squad's bullets.
As political parties splintered and economic crisis set in, the 1990s saw the Italian polit-
ical scene rocked by the Tangentopoli ('kickback city') scandal, which broke in Milan in
1992. Led by a pool of Milanese magistrates, including the tough Antonio di Pietro, invest-
igations known as
Mani Pulite
(Clean Hands) implicated thousands of politicians, public
officials and businesspeople in scandals ranging from bribery and receiving kickbacks to
blatant theft.
The old centre-right political parties collapsed in the wake of these trials and from the
ashes rose what many Italians hoped might be a breath of fresh political air. Media magnate
Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy) party swept to power in 2001 and (after an in-
conclusive two-year interlude of centre-left government under former European Commis-
sion head Romano Prodi from 2006) again in April 2008. Berlusconi's carefully choreo-
graphed blend of charisma, confidence, irreverence and promises of tax cuts appealed to
many Italian voters. His transformation from cruise-ship crooner to populist media mogul
(and football club owner) encapsulated the ultimate self-made success story, and his own
corporate success was widely acknowledged as proof of an innate economic know-how.
Berlusconi's tenure turned out to not be just more of the same, but if anything, even
worse. A series of laws were passed that protected his extensive business interests, and the
economy went from bad to worse.
However, in 2011, Berlusconi was forced to resign due to Italy's worsening economic
situation in relation to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis (see also
Click here
for more on
Berlusconi's Trials and Tribulations). A government of technocrats, headed by economist
