Can Italy’s arch Eurocrat save his country?

The world these days is so blasè about the destruction of democracy that no one even thinks it worthy of comment that an important free country such as Italy has not had an elected prime minister since the last one, Silvio Berlusconi, was forced to resign in 2011 during the Eurozone crisis after a palace coup orchestrated by Brussels, Berlin and Paris.

That is ten years without a prime minister chosen by the Italian people at the ballot box in a general election. The electoral system, currently a hybrid of first past the post and proportional representation, is partly to blame. But the real reason is the Italians. They seem anthropologically incapable of giving enough votes to form a government, even to a coalition of parties — let alone one single party.

Since the fall of fascism, the abolition of the monarchy and the foundation of the republic in 1946, Italy has had 67 governments.