Glad I don't live in Italy or France

Recently the major troubles in both Italy and France have made me even more proud to be an American, and especially glad that I don't live in either of those countries. In France the government tries to introduce labor laws to make it easier to fire incompetent young workers, and the students and union members have these big riots all over Paris, forcing the government into an embarrassing climbdown over the issue. In fact, the intention of the legislation was to reduce the reluctance on the part of employers to hire younger workers because of the difficulty in firing them. It is not because the government wants to throw thousands of people out of work, but because they want just the opposite. During this crisis it showed that both sides, the left and the right in France have no answers and nothing to offer in the way of improving the country. The French System is going to be endangered without changes to it quickly, changes that will require short term pain and maybe even tax increases.

Italy is even worse in many ways. In 2005 the economy did not grow at all, and the country only emerged from recession this year, with GDP growth expected under 2 percent. I am not sure, and I admit to not having the statistics right in front of me, but I believe that their GDP for the first quarter of 2006 has been 1.1 percent, but I am not sure if this is projected or a formal statistic. Let me first admit my bias here: I am a HUGE fan of outgoing (and hopefully future) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and I hope that he is able to deal a knockout blow to the government of Romano Prodi as soon as possible, but at the same time, Italy doesn't really have anyone who has the courage or even the capability of turning the country around. Consider that when you hear about votes for Prodi and votes for Berlusconi being separated by less than 25,000 for the lower house, oftentimes what is neglected to mention is that Prodi and Berlusconi are not individual candidates, nor even leaders of two unified parties. Instead they are the respective leaders of the center-right House of Freedoms (Berlusconi) and the center-left Union (Prodi). Within these coalitions are several parties all of which are in disagreement with each other on at least some things.

Prodi's coalition contains centrist roman catholics, as well as hard left unreformed communists. Berlusconi's coalition includes at least one neofascist party, and a minor party in the coalition (albiet with no seats) is led by Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Il Duce himself.

There is no way the Union will be able to push through much of what it is proposing, and to be honest much of what it is proposing isn't going to make things better. I don't want to get into specifics but I believe they plan to scrap a labor law that was one of the reforms that Berlusconi did that even his harsh critics in the Economist thought was beneficial. What they have now is not a government, its a mess. They can't even agree who the Speaker of the House of Deputies is going to be, so there is no evidence that they will be able to govern for anywhere close to the "full five year term" pledged by incoming Prime Minsiter Romano Prodi. Instead, what is more likely to happen is another election this year, perhaps as early as November.