SHORTLY after midnight on December 5th, Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, faced the media for an emotional farewell strikingly reminiscent of that of David Cameron following the Brexit vote. It appeared that the anti-elite torrent sweeping the West had claimed yet another victim. The day before, Italians had resoundingly defeated Mr Renzi’s proposals for constitutional reform. Flanked by his wife, he announced he would resign: “My experience in government ends here.”
Mr Renzi had always said he was different from other Italian politicians, who hang on to their posts and privileges with the tenacity of pit bulls. If he failed to convince voters to back his vision, he said, he would leave office, and maybe politics. During the referendum campaign, he said repeatedly that he did not intend just to “stay afloat” if defeated. Apparently true to his word, he later tendered his resignation to the president, Sergio Mattarella, who asked him to stay for long enough to secure the passage of next year’s budget.
Yet even before the finance bill was approved in parliament on December 7th, it became clear that Mr Renzi had either changed…
The Economist: Europe
