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  • Op-Eds

    Topping the New Year Agenda: Sleight-of-Hand Taxes, Elections Law Revision

    Judith Harris(January 12, 2014)
    Speedy actin of taxation and a revision of the law governing national general elections top the new year political agenda. The hated housing tax IMU was originally applied to primary residences, and the income from it divided between the state and the local townships. But it was abolished and application of new substitute tax laws is proving chaotic. In addition, Matteo Renzi, the new head of the Partito Democratico (PD), demands revision within days, not weeks, of the "Porcellum" electoral law, declared unconstitutional last month, eight years after it was adopted.
  • Op-Eds

    Italy in a Bad Mood(y's)

    Judith Harris(July 14, 2012)
    Five words sum up Italy in this hot mid-summer, and not one is Italian. Here they are, in no particular order: spread, Moody's, Porcellum (a bastardized Latin word coined by the canny elder statesman of Italian political commentary Giovanni Sartori), and spending review. The five are intimately linked.
  • Op-Eds

    The Porcellum Revisited

    Judith Harris(July 19, 2011)
    When you hear talk in a Roman trattoria of “Porcellum”, the diners are not discussing the pork roast on the menu—they’re talking politics. The back story is that after the current election bill became law, the man who wrote it, Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League, either shamelessly or carelessly called it“una porcata”, which Google’s free translation service puts into English as “crap.” Taking Google at its literal word, this means that the law which gave the present parliament and senate their seats and salaries is called in English “the crap law.” Political analyist Giovanni Sartori dressed it up a bit by putting it into Latin. Ever since the law is universally known as the Porcellum, suddenly under discussion because, after countless vague hints and blackmail-style threats, early elections begin to appear a real possibility. The signs are everywhere, but nowhere clearer than in the continuing concerns over ratings and the effectiveness (or not) of the new emergency budget.