sunnysider

Sat here looking at Italy from the outside I remain puzzled about what that great reformer Renzi has actually reformed/changed whatever.

Wasn't it supposed to be a reform a week/month or whatever?

Anyone care to enlighten a thico brit in britain with a few bullet points?

This could become an ongoing thread with more bullet points added as time goes on.

Or it could just be an empty prairie of rolling tumbleweed.

Garbatellamike

OK, let me start. So far he has announced a 100 day plan to solve all the Country's problems - he has done nothing of substance in the 100 days. Therefore, today he announced a 1000 day plan to solve all the problems - you can see how this will go (particularly if you remember all of Gormless Gordon's five year plans in the UK); ....10 year plan to follow in 999 more days maybe??

Renzi has done a dodgy deal to vote for Junker as Van Rumpy's replacement in exchange for the ability to increase borrowing in contravention of the stability pack - quite a success for him.

He may also succeed in getting the pretty useless Mogherini appointed as EU HR in replacement for Ashton (with Moggy being completely useless, she will still be a significant upgrade on Ashton!). Emma Bonino was the most able and talented Italian candidate imho but what has talent got to do with EU appointments.

Answer to your question, therefore, not a lot but a little. And that said he is still probably the best candidate for PM here given the alternatives. There really isn't much to chose from!

modicasa

Imagine Yes Prime MInister and multiply it 1000- This is what Renzi has to deal with. Whatever he has said thus far gets transmuted into civil servicespeak and deemed unconstitutional. Italy really is ungovernable, but I still maintain he's doing his best, and is the best of a bad bunch.

primularossa

Modicasa is right when he writes that Italy could not express any better than Renzi. Unfortunately we have a very bad political class. :-((

ononno

highlander1

[QUOTE=Garbatellamike;11314074]OK, let me start. So far he has announced a 100 day plan to solve all the Country's problems - he has done nothing of substance in the 100 days. Therefore, today he announced a 1000 day plan to solve all the problems - you can see how this will go (particularly if you remember all of Gormless Gordon's five year plans in the UK); ....10 year plan to follow in 999 more days maybe??

More than that he actually said that is going to teach Europe how to do thing !!!!!...... any empty boat going away from Lampedusa ?

primularossa

Well, Renzi was known in Florence, among his classmates in primary school, as "I'Bbomba" (il bomba) because he was known to be a braggart :-)

sunnysider

Thanks for the replies folk.

Not a criticism of you all by any means at all but am still puzzled by what's changed.

I know there are suggestions about the Senate.

And I know there's been a tax giveaway - but that is hardly a reform.

So am still puzzled.

An interesting quote in this piece:

'Europe is without soul': Matteo Renzi - The Local

where Renzi says:

"Today Europe is boredom ... it is submerged by numbers and without soul," he said.

"Either we accept that we share common values, or you can keep your currency and we'll keep our values,"

I thought the Euro WAS Italy's currency, not someone else's.

Anyone care to tell me what he means?

Garbatellamike

[QUOTE=highlander1;11315161] Yes he certainly talks the talk......... what we wait for is walking the walk - i.e. to answer the OP's question: he hasn't yet done anything substantive.

My take on the 1000 day plan announcement is that it was a coded statement of intent to continue to the end of this Parliament (2018) without calling any elections based on the mandate he got from the Euro elections. I may be wrong on this but that is my reading of the smoke signals.

primularossa

This is certainly true, as it has always been in the past years.
And anytime we call for elections we hope that things will change but they do not - or, if they change, they do in worse (from my point of view of course).

In these days I read some pages about the history of the first days of the Italian Republic - end of WWII, rise of the Christian Democratic party, and I see the same story: anyone who hold some kind of power (land and factory owners, but also the middle class with some privileges) that is always finding "a good horse to ride": the fascists before, the DC after, Berlusconi....now Renzi? being every time very opportunist.
This is why I sadly say "Italy is a right wind country".

ciao, Primula

ononno

Ciao Primula, I'm afraid that at the moment Italy has neither a right wind nor a left wind. It is in the doldrums, totally becalmed, with no prospect of going anywhere at the moment.
bye bye dicette l'inglese

primularossa

well, maybe the usual "categories" of what is left and what is right wing can be a little confused at the moment, if you just look at the politicians declarations.
Is Renzi an innovator? Is Grillo a madman populist and a bit fascist? where do the right parties disappear, and who do they represent?

Look behind appearances: we already said in this forum that Italians are very good in a sport, the "jump on the chariot of the winner". Were the fascists the winner of last century? all fascists. Where the Christian Democrats the most reassuring party for defending the privileges of the capitalist class and of the middle class? all for DC. What about Berlusconi? Now, Renzi comes.....

Renzi wants to look as an innovator, but he is protected (and subsidised) by the usual strong powers: at the moment: a capitalist class that operates in finance more than in production of goods. Innovation is left wing? it depends. If innovation means to have a less democratic electoral low, less power to local administrations, a Senate of puppets, NO, to be an innovator means to apply a very undemocratic restoration.

ciao, Primula

Garbatellamike

Very true and we are of course living in a country where the President is an ex-communist and an ex-facist - world class chariot jumper him!

Ruby2

“In most cases, those who want power probably shouldn't have it, those who enjoy it probably do so for the wrong reasons, and those who want most to hold on to it don't understand that it's only temporary.”


― John C. Maxwell, Becoming a Person of Influence

highlander1

Hear,hear !!