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main obstacle to progress on Euro-
pean integration. The Greek crisis has
shown that individual State failure
affects regional European success and
therefore points towards a joint collec-
tive response. But, the Italian example
is also interesting as for many months
the Italian Prime Minister's credibility
had been weakened by a series of in-
cidents, without having any concrete
impact on national democratic games.

A crisis was reached and, more spe-
cifically, the markets decided that
"enough was enough". Mr Berlusconi ted him. Even so, had elections taken in even more massive unemployment
was replaced. In forty-eight hours a place at that time Berlusconi would and deeper social hurdles.
substantial change took place: first a have won!
government of technicians replaced Thanks to the present economic crisis,
the so-called "democratic" govern- The Italian example raises the ques- Europe can start dealing with serious
ment and a number of new measures tion of the accountability of national issues that have remained neglected
were taken in a very short period of decision-making in the contemporary for more than thirty years. Political
time. The question of how citizens European setting. People are worried accountability and the adequacy of
choose their politicians in Europe about their daily lives to the extent economic structures to deal with the
remains open. I always thought that that they do not have time to think international context are being dis-
the "personality" of Berlusconi reflec- about the rest of the world. Euro- cussed as a result of a potential col-
ted the values -- or lack thereof -- pean public opinion is more and more lapse of the euro and the implosion
that underpin Italian society. We are short-sighted and media-dependent. of the European economic system.
talking about competition based on For example, the system of natio- The issue is that reforms will go in the
"whom who know" rather than merit nal democratic voting has proved to direction of liberalism rather than to-
-- making easy money through your be inefficient in an economically ward increased social protection.
network and connections. His was globalized world. National political
For example, in Italy the Monti go-
vernment has decided to tackle the
rigidity of the labour market by li-
beralizing certain sectors, i.e. taxi li-
censes and Article 18 of the Constitu-
tion -- thereby facilitating dismissal.
It appears to me that there is a sort
of push to the bottom as it concerns
social development. The present mea-
sures send the message that there is
only one way to solve the crisis: to
disengage the State even more and to
provide more manoeuvrability for the
private sector so that it can be more
competitive on the international mar-
kets. The liberal philosophy has ad-
vanced even further to solve a crisis
that results from liberal thinking. It
is puzzling. What about creating the
conditions for a more dynamic labour
indeed the prototype of a society that representation might, as in the case of market? What about thinking about
lives via the media and refuses to exa- Italy, be completely out of step with measures to encourage merit over
mine its values and its societal rules. international reality and carry the client networking? What about having
He had been re-elected several times country towards marginalization and a youth policy that sustains the crea-
despite his inconsistency, both from a economic disaster. That is the direc- tion of innovative businesses? These
political and a personal point of view. tion in which Italy was going. At this questions remain unanswered.
stage, only a federal Europe can tackle
In fact, the values that he transmit- all these challenges. The European Looking towards the future or
ted fascinated a number of people -- population should be made aware that going back to the past?
particularly men -- and relate to the the continent is entering a new era
super powerful man who commands and that it cannot continue functio- I am not sure that European societies
not because of his ideas and his achie- ning as it did in the last century. are going in the direction of encoura-
vements, but simply because he has ging effort and merit as references for
money and a dominating attitude. The price of refusing to change would the future. In fact, my feeling is that
However, the markets no longer trus- be, and has been, too high, resulting such values are disappearing from

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