Il regalo di compleanno

Ieri il Financial Times ha parlato di ''un infelice compleanno per una nazione civile''. Secondo il giornale britannico al Paese occorre ''trovare un leader capace di superare gli interessi personali e per le feste e di sollevare il tono della vita pubblica''. Sarebbe, secondo il giornale, il regalo di compleanno che i numerosi ammiratori dell'Italia vorrebbero donare al paese.

Unhappy birthday of a civilised nation

Italy’s identity remains fragile after 150 years as a state

Today is St Patrick’s day, and whatever Ireland’s debt woes this annual celebration of nationhood is sure to provide some cheer. If only it were so simple in Italy, where Thursday marks the 150th anniversary of the peninsula’s unification as a nation-state. One month ago, when Silvio Berlusconi’s government declared Thursday a public holiday, two ministers from the regionalist Northern League voted against the decision. In Bolzano, a mainly German-speaking autonomous province, the governor refuses to join Thursday’s festivities on the grounds that Italy annexed his land after the first world war against the wishes of its population.

Modern Italy’s difficulties extend beyond a contested and fragile national identity. The economy is stagnant and burdened with a vast public debt, lagging competitiveness and a rigid labour market. The legal system is inefficient, and the education system is of moderate quality. Organised crime spreads its tentacles across the country. Immigration, necessary because of a persistently low birth rate, poses long-term challenges of social integration.

Abroad, Italy punches below its weight in the European Union. Its faltering response to the revolutionary events in north Africa has exposed uncertainties in its foreign policy. Worst of all, Mr Berlusconi, the dominant politician of the past 17 years, is a premier who has inexcusably failed to promote economic reform and whose shameless public and private excesses have sunk Italy’s prestige to its lowest level since 1945.

Without question Italy has great strengths as well. It is a prosperous country that boasts many flourishing, creative companies with global reach. Thanks to two first-class institutions, the finance ministry and the central bank, Italy is skilfully navigating its way through the financial crisis. At regional and municipal level, much of Italy is well-governed, culture is vibrant and life is exquisitely civilised. The vigour and diversity of Italy’s regions and cities help to balance the failings of the central state.

These failings started with the high-handed manner in which the kingdom of Piedmont imposed its rule in the 1860s on the newly united state. They find expression today in the squalid corrosion of politics and the rule of law under Mr Berlusconi. If Italy’s numerous admirers were to give the nation a 150th birthday present, they would surely find it a leader able to rise above personal and party interests and lift the tone of public life.