Arrivederci Carnevale...and more good news...

Phew! Ash Wednesday: an important day in the Western Church, admittedly, but also a joyous day in our lives, Carnevale is toast, hasta luego, baby!

Second good news (I think) is that the Prodi government did not survive a no-confidence vote last night in parliament. While his coalition (see last week's blog) has a majority, there were 4 abstentions within the coalition during the vote and the government fell two votes shy of a majority and things are up in the air. Prodi will be asked to form a new government but he has to beat the radicals into alignment, especially on the Dal Molin US Airbase issue and on Italy's commitment to troops in Afghanistan both of which which were militantly opposed by the the wild ones in the two communist parties and among the Greens. Forming a new government is big job and in the long run Prodi will fail. Three months, six months, nine months.

To his credit, Prodi did attempt to liberalise some markets here. For instance, he eliminated minimum fees for lawyers; he is allowing soon (I hope) over-the-counter parmaceuticals (aspirin, Sudafed, etc,) be sold in other than pharmacies (to buy aspirin here you must buy it at the pharmacy and pay about three euro per pack of twelve); he is increasing the number of taxi licences available in the country since Italy has the most expensive taxi rates in Europe. So you may ask...who have been going on periodic strikes since the liberalisation was announced? Taxi drivers, lawyers,and pharmacists. Yes, independent lawyers, sitting in their office who do wills, real estate go on strike...imagine that, all that billable time!

I said at the beginning that the Prodi business was good news. So Prodi and Italy have perhaps learned that if you lie down with radicals and commies you get up with fleas.

The word ungovernable looms large.