Italy wants salvation without the pain

Italians are overwhelmingly in favour of cutting their country’s enormous debts, as long as they do not have to make personal sacrifices to achieve it.

An AP-GfK poll showed that 93% consider public debt a priority, but only about a quarter favour reforming employment laws to make it easier to fire workers or approve of raising the retirement age to 67. Those reforms are considered critical to curbing Italy’s public spending and boosting its economic growth.