All the Italian newspapers and media are talking about, is weather Silvio Berlusconi will testify in the sex and prostitution investigation. This is obviously deflecting the public opinion’s attention from the economic problems and, most importantly, the amendments the 2012-2014 Budget.
It has therefore passed almost unnoticed the extremely harsh comment of Emma Mercegaglia (the President of the Italian Industrial Association), to the deficit containment’s measures decided by the Government. The accusation is essentially that, either directly or indirectly, most of the savings will come from tax increases and not expenditure cuts.
In the mean time, there doesn’t seem to be a real perception of the potential risks of the current Italian situation. True, you can read and hear plenty of statements from various personalities (most notably the President Mr. Napolitano) going in the right direction, but my impression is that the current crisis has not yet dented the living standards of common people. Once it will, and depending on how deeply Italian’s habits will be affected, we could have a significant wave of protests and social unrest.
The good news though, is that at the moment there seem to be some kind of resignation, not only to the tight belting measures already decided by the Government, but also to further drastic decisions that might come.
The bad news, at least from my point of view, is that more and more people, especially amongst the well educated and well informed, is seriously talking about leaving the country, alleging the evanishing hope that Italy will ever recover from the: bad government – high taxes – no growth spiral, in which it has plunged in recent years.
Should this happen on a systemic basis, it would add another element of decline to an already deteriorating situation. Hopefully the amenity of Italy’s living will prevent many, at least for the moment, to take such a drastic decision, but should the situation deteriorate further, expect plenty of well-off Italians to cross the borders of Switzerland and Austria.
