Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ignominious departure, amid much jeering and booing, might have satisfied many Italians fed up at his sordid lifestyle and the lurid scandals that surrounded him, but it still leaves open the question of what direction Italy must now take. The key objective was not just to get rid of a gaffe-prone PM or cleansing public life, but initiating measures to stabilise Italy’s fast-deteriorating economic situation. If anything, Mr Berlusconi, who ruled for 17 years, provided some political stability to a nation famous for its shortlived coalition governments, but could not, in the end, inspire confidence among his European peers or the global international financial markets.
Fears that Italy would go the Greek way sent a shiver down the collective spines of investors and Europeans in general. The Italian economy, suffering from low growth and high public debt, is several times bigger than that of Greece and its collapse would inevitably mean the end of the eurozone. The irony is that the Italian economy, unlike Greece’s, is not inherently a weak one; but its mismanagement by Mr Berlusconi’s government left a lot to be desired. He was seen as a liability that needed to be swiftly replaced; which he has been, by an economist. Europe isn’t out of the woods yet, nor is the euro’s future secure. But with technocrats taking charge in both Italy and Greece, confidence levels have risen that the beleaguered continent might yet come out of its crisis with a little less pain.