| Couldn't agree more. |
Asked if he would stand in 2011, he said: “I don’t make long-term programmes, but I think five years is enough.”
Prodi defeated centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi in April in what was modern Italy’s closest general election and now governs with a majority of just one seat in the upper house, a position many political analysts say is untenable. The fact that Prodi was able to deliver a year-end news conference was itself a victory over opponents who had often called out in parliament: “You won’t eat panettone (Christmas cake)”, meaning he would not still be in office by December.
Prodi parried reportersÂ’ suggestions that his government could implode over economic reforms he intends to launch in the New Year. The left wing of ProdiÂ’s coalition, which stretches from centrist liberals to hard-line communists, has warned him not to make radical changes to the countryÂ’s state pension system, which he says will be the centre-piece of his reform programme.
| This is the pension plan that lets you retire at age 57. Berlusconi's reforms raised that to age 60 but that reform is on hold. Anyone wonder why Italy is going into the dumper? |
| At this rate they'll bring back the lira. |