It could have been worse

George Clooney has arrived in Venice and has dusted off a marvellous word: cachistocracy, the rule of the least fit. He was speaking about Trump’s America, and paid tribute to the old sense of decency. Here, the Meloni government’s track record might well start from the opposite end, not with the great revolution it promised – the country is ruled by debt, so there is little to promise. A fairly considerable number of predicted disasters have not materialised: Meloni has not wrecked the public finances; the deficit has fallen to 3.1 per cent in 2025, and Brussels forecasts it at 2.9 per cent in 2026. It is not an economic miracle, but for us it is something of a rarity all the same. Meloni has not exploited her popularity to create another financial black hole; she has not pursued extreme policies; she has not destroyed the labour market (there is the issue of wages, though – in Italy, it remains to be seen who can tackle that outside of an election campaign). She has not provoked European isolation (the Spanish misstep was a minor blip), nor has she sought to break away from the axis—just a few scowls in Macron’s direction. She did not follow Trump when it became too costly to do so. She has not thrown the NRRP out the window. She has not raised her voice much with that furious rise in pitch; when she speaks softly and in a low tone, she seems even more unbeatable. The figures are not perfect, but there has been no derailment. It is worth recalling the traditional political nemesis that weighs on us: things can always get much worse (and often do).