Had the Berlusconi government fallen, it was expected that a technical cabinet to be headed by the prestigious economist Mario Monti, 69, was to take over until a controversial election law could be rewritten and early elections be held. Monti’s front-running position makes it all the more important that on the day after the confidence vote his hard-hitting editorial—it had to have been prepared well ahead of time—ran in the daily Corriere della Sera.
