Nearly the end of the year, and I’m leaving Bologna to go to Rome. The news in Italy: after several months of banking scandals, the governor of BankItalia has finally resigned. China has overtaken Italy in the ‘World’s Richest Country’ classification. There’s a bit of a feeling that everything’s on hold until after the elections.
But until the New Year, here are some statistics from La Repubblica’s survey on the state of Italy. 53% of people think that life’s worse than five years ago. The most important political issue is unemployment, they say, followed by the cost of living and rising prices. The latter has risen in the rankings compared to three years ago. Third on the list is common (as opposed to organised) crime.
The survey also asked people which public institutions they most trusted. This is interesting. The figures put together say: 80% trust the President of the Republic (i.e. Ciampi, not Berlusconi); 69.8% the armed forces/police; 61.3% the Church; 59.8% the school system; 52.4% the European Union. Parliament comes in at 22.5%, the government 18% and the political parties 8.7%.
However, if you divide up the statistics between left/centre and right/centre voters they change rather dramatically. Among left/centre voters the armed forces and police – bizarrely – still come out top after Ciampi, at 65.6%; next is the European Union with 62.2%; then schools, then the magistrature, then CGIL, the most left-wing of the trade union federations, which gets 54.5%. The Church, even among left/centre voters, still gets 48.6%. The biggest divisions between right and left voters are, as you might expect, on the trade unions and the Church.