Even Caligula lasted a long time, but...

It is understandable that Giorgia Meloni should celebrate the Republic’s longest-serving government. Stability is a good thing, but it cannot be measured by self-congratulation. Public finances deserve a positive assessment: 2024 saw the greatest reduction in deficit and debt in the history of the Republic, with a decisive curb on the insane peaks caused by the building Superbonus, which Italians tend to forget. However, the government’s anti-inflation strategy has favoured contribution and tax bonuses, and so personal income tax (IRPEF) and the welfare system remain deprived of a comprehensive reform. A modern right-wing party should put an end to the outrage that 15 per cent of taxpayers pay over two-thirds of personal income tax and fund all the public services for the remaining 85 per cent of Italians. It would not have turned down Unicredit, thereby allowing Crédit Agricole to become the dominant shareholder in BPM, nor would it have hand-picked ‘friends’ to whom to sell shares in MPS. A cardinal error was the tone adopted regarding the referendum on the justice system – a huge gift to the opposition and those advocating harsh punishment. Its stance on Ukraine was sound, but it proved incapable of stating that one does not ally oneself with Putin’s lackeys, Vannacci foremost among them. And that Trump’s follies are incompatible with the challenge posed to us by China, Iran and Russia. In the elections, the risk is that we will end up with opposing populist forces, not a serious government to revitalise. Even Caligula was emperor for three years and eight months. But that was not enough to erase his mistakes and follies.