Italy: Coalition at odds with EU - Will Rome burn?

Italian politics have, for decades, been good for a laugh, thanks, in part, to Silvio Berlusconi, who, despite being seen in smart European circles as a clown, served for nine years in four administrations, as prime minister. He was the country’s longest-serving post-war head of government.

But we ain’t seen nothing yet. Italy’s incoming government will be a coalition comprising the populist left-wing grouping — the Five Star movement founded by a real comedian, who has been described as an Italian Billy Connolly — and its right-wing mirror image, the League (formerly the secessionist Northern League). The coalition partners can’t stand each other, but they have united on a programme founded on their shared detestation of the liberal international elites — big business, banks, centrist politicians — they accuse of feathering their own nests while Italy rots.

Elitists at the European Commission and Central Bank won’t see the funny side of a programme that features a menacing demand for “renegotiated EU treaties” and promises measures to cut taxes, increase welfare payments, and break the EU’s 3% deficit ceiling with a €100bn public-spending binge. The result could be a banking and debt crisis in the eurozone’s third-largest economy and another clash between an elected government and the EU, turning an Italian farce into another Greek tragedy.