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bors. “You used to be able to go out and have a pizza and a beer for X lire/francs/drachma.
Now it costs more than twice as much.”
In Italy everyone who could do so raised his prices, either to keep pace with the staggering
inflation or to take advantage of this Alice-in-Wonderland situation. So, professionals like
lawyers and accountants simply raised their rates. Business owners increased prices for
goods and services across the board. The only people who couldn't raise their prices were
pensioners and salaried employees: teachers, postal workers, bank clerks, laborers. They
received raises of 8 or 10% while the cost of living more than doubled. There was a
widespread sense of betrayal, and at the next election the conservatives under Berlusconi
suffered a major defeat, and a liberal coalition with Romano Prodi at its head came to
power.
Okay, “liberal coalition” may not be the best way to characterize the motley collection of
parties and grouplets that joined together to capture a majority of the public vote. In the
United States the Symbionese Liberation Army vanished in the early 70s after the Hearst
heist. The Communists are today remembered in American politics mainly by scholars or
from tales told by grandparents. The United Trotskyite Revisionist Socialist Workers Party
Of the World, if it still exists, consists of six people who meet once a month in a rented
basement and chain-smoke while they dream of the coming workers' revolution. (Admit-
tedly, some of these wacko far-left groups are making a comeback through their recent alli-
ances with radical Islamists. Theyprovidetheorganizational skills while theothers provide
the foot-soldiers to scream hate-filled, anti-Western slogans. But let's get back to Italy.)
In Italy, the Prodi government found itself in a situation where it could only stay in power
by placating its lunatic fringe. It had to contend with those who denounced the sending of
Italian troops to Afghanistan as “Western imperialism”. Hey, if the Taliban want to shoot
schoolgirls who are trying to learn to read and write, or throw acid in the face of women
who walk around without a burka, it's certainly their right as indigenous peoples. Who are
we to impose our Western values on these noble peoples of the Third World?
In addition to the political wackos the Prodi government also needed the support of certain
marginal players who were perhaps less than honorable supporters of the rule of law. Dur-
ing the infamous Naples garbage strike, the wife of a parliamentarian from the Campania
region was indicted and placed under house arrest. To punish the government for failing
to cover for him, the minister withdrew the support of his tiny party, and it was enough to
bring down the government. In Italy, if the party in power can't get a majority of votes on
any piece of legislation it proposes, it's all over.
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