Italy, it would seem, may finally be ready to turn the corner. Two important straws in the wind suggest that it is about to confront crucial institutional/political blockages central to its state of seemingly permanent economic and political stagnation – Italy's highest court last week ruled unconstitutional two elements of the country's stalemate-prone electoral system, while this week a generational shift in political leadership at last seemed under way with the landslide victory of a charismatic young moderniser in his bid to lead the centre-left.
Mayor of Florence Matteo Renzi (38) on Sunday became the leader of the country's biggest party, the Democratic Party, winning a nationwide primary with 68 per cent of the 2.9 million primary voters. It is a first sign that the old political system could throw up an effective response to both the crookedness of Silvio Berlusconi and the anti-politics of Beppe Grillo .
Renzi has moved quickly to replace the leadership board of the party and promised a reform programme to overhaul the expensive, inefficient public administration, simplify employment laws, and make the EU work better.
Crucially, he insists of his relationship with prime minister and party colleague Enrico Letta that "the point is not to bring down the government, it's about making the government work." That will mean working with Letta on badly needed political, and, ahead of the next election, electoral reform.
Over the last half-century Italy has tried out three electoral systems. It will now need a fourth. The court has found against current provisions for a special seat bonus for the leading party to help it form a government, and against the system of closed lists which allows voters to choose between parties but not candidates. Renzi favours the French system of two rounds of voting, providing, in theory at least, the chance to ensure clear majorities for a government. Other options will be fiercely canvassed, but the prospect of new faces on the ballot, and a new electoral system, can only be good for the country’s sclerotic politics.