NO RECENT Italian prime minister has swept into office with as much youthful vigour and brazen self-confidence as Matteo Renzi. But almost a year after he snatched power from his predecessor, the 40-year-old Mr Renzi is waist-deep in what Italians call il pantano (the swamp). Its quicksand and viscous waters—a mix of bureaucratic obstructionism and parliamentary cantankerousness—have swallowed many an earlier would-be reformer.Mr Renzi, however, is making progress: on January 21st the Senate approved a measure that should ensure the passage of a new electoral law. But gone are the days when he promised to transform Italy with a reform a month. His Democratic Party (PD) is still ahead in the polls, but its popularity has ebbed. And the only big structural economic reform that he has made is an overhaul of the labor market that has yet to be enacted.Mr Renzi has enjoyed the backing of two unlikely figures: the outgoing president, Giorgio Napolitano, a former communist; and Silvio Berlusconi, leader of Italy’s main right-wing party, Forza Italia, and a former prime minister who last year agreed to back plans for political and constitutional…
