Roman Circus

Silvio Berlusconi holds his promises

of Italian dynamism hostage to political bloodsport.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to put his government to a no-confidence vote next month. That would be the fourth time this summer, and the second since a split in Mr. Berlusconi's center-right coalition emerged last month to threaten his parliamentary majority. The latest installment in this Roman soap opera, coming next month, ostensibly concerns Mr. Berlusconi's sweeping five-point plan for the country: greater fiscal autonomy for Italy's regions, tax cuts and a simplified tax code, development and infrastructure spending for southern Italy; crackdowns on illegal immigration and organized crime, and an overhaul to the justice system. Oh, and all that is completely non-negotiable: "Should cohesion be lacking on even one of these five points. . . . We would refuse to let the reforms we have pledged be negotiated down," Mr. Berlusconi was quoted as saying in the Corriere della Sera on Monday, adding that if his plan doesn't win majority support in its entirety, "the only way forward" will be early elections. But nobody in his fractured coalition seems to disagree with the thrust of the plan. The only real points of contention are with the judicial reforms, though mainly because they would alleviate legal pressures on the embattled Premier himself. On the need for pro-growth reforms in particular, the Italian right remains united. So why the ultimatum? Well, this is Italy. Mr. Berlusconi is gambling—cleverly, according to most polls—that he and his remaining allies would fare well in a snap election, while squeezing out some of the troublesome dissenters led by Mr. Berlusconi's erstwhile ally Gianfranco Fini. Mr. Fini led more than 30 lawmakers out of Mr. Berlusconi's coalition late last month after attacking the ethics of some of Mr. Berlusconi's friends. Mr. Fini also opposed a controversial measure passed in the Senate in June to restrict wiretapping (the measure was tied to a confidence vote, naturally), and has suggested that politicians under investigation should resign—a proposal that would dispose of some of Mr. Berlusconi's cohorts. Meanwhile, Italy declines. Voters have elected Mr. Berlusconi three times on promises to shrink the state. What they've gotten instead is an endless parade of no-confidence votes, petty scandals, relative economic stagnation and sclerotic bureaucracy. To take just one example, the World Bank says it takes an average of 1,210 days to enforce a contract in Italy, and that such government "service" costs a medium-sized Italian company 68.4% of its profits. Given this shambles, it's a testament to Italians' ingenuity and verve that they still manage to produce some of the world's most successful brands and maintain a reasonable standard of living. Imagine what they could achieve if Mr. Berlusconi weren't holding his promises of Italian dynamism hostage to political bloodsport.

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