The Renzi government has achieved more

Meloni has broken the only record that mattered to her: that of longevity. “E io pago,” as Totò would say, because it is the Italians who foot the bill for this stagnation. There are other kinds of records that won’t feature at the FdI party or on Rai news programmes: Meloni’s Italy ranks last in Europe for GDP and real wages, and first for public debt. The tax burden exceeds 43 per cent, utility bills and petrol prices are sky-high, industrial production is in crisis, 5.8 million Italians are foregoing medical treatment and just as many are living in poverty. A record number of Italians have fled abroad. The government’s major reforms over four years? Criminalising rave parties, taxes on sanitary towels and nappies, Panettone Day and the failure of the ‘Made in Italy’ secondary school scheme. During Renzi’s 1,000 days in government: the Jobs Act, the abolition of the IMU tax on primary residences and the IRAP tax on labour costs, electronic invoicing, SPID, the ‘brain gain’ initiative, tackling food waste, civil partnerships, reform of the third sector and much more. Meloni’s Italy is now more isolated in Europe. She has even failed on the issue of migrants: they are being sent back to Italy from other countries – so much for the ‘Albania model’. The government has multiplied offences and penalties on paper without making streets and stations any safer. The ‘daughter of the people’, following her defeat in the referendum, is trying to cling on to power by hastily changing the electoral law as a top priority. So our best wishes go to the Italian people, not to the mediocre Meloni government. Perhaps someone will say that when she was in power, the trains used to run on time. In fact, that is not the case either.