Not again! Just 13 months ago, European heads of state and government joined forces to usher Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi into retirement. Chancellor Angela Merkel and then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy marshalled all of their persuasive powers to clear they way for a reform government in Rome under the leadership of Mario Monti.
Now, with Prime Minister Monti having said over the weekend that he would resign as soon as he pushes through a key budget law, Italy’s least serious politician is back. And Europe is groaning in displeasure. The French leftist paper Libération wrote “The Mummy Returns,” a reference to a 2001 movie of the same name. And the otherwise dour German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk noted, “It is like a horror film: The undead keep coming back.”
looking beyond borders 