IT IS the most famous quote in modern Italian literature, because it captures so well the cynicism and conservatism of modern Italian politics. “If we want everything to remain as it is,” says Tancredi in Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s “The Leopard”, “everything needs to change.”For once, Italy’s politicians have turned the saying on its head. On April 20th they arranged for things to stay as they were in order to make them change. After repeatedly failing to get a new president elected, the heads of Italy’s two leading mainstream parties, Pier Luigi Bersani of the Democratic Party (PD) and Silvio Berlusconi of the People of Freedom (PdL) movement, went to the 87-year-old incumbent, Giorgio Napolitano, and begged him to stay on. Unsurprisingly, given his age, Mr Napolitano had discounted a second term. So he was able to make demands: he would agree only if the PD and PdL broke the deadlock that was stopping the formation of a new government.Mr Berlusconi, who has argued for a left-right coalition ever since the election in February produced a hung parliament, needed no persuading. But Mr Bersani had sought a minority government with some backing from the anti-establishment…
