Italy – Comment: Local elections – all eyes on Rome

On Sunday and Monday local elections were held in Italy. It was the first big occasion to measure the political temperature since the general elections in February. In my view the two most significant developments in Rome’s voting (and maybe a sign for things to come also on the national level) were:

Czerulf: Italy – Berlusconi, Imu and what comes next

Silvio Berlusconi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Flipping through the newspapers one could get the impression that things are going rather well in Italy. Relatively little space is attributed to the issues that mark the current crisis – a depressed economy, an unemployment rate that is rising month on month (specially among young people) and a political system that fails to address all these issues. One would expect that this mix of upsetting facts should dominate the headlines. Instead what keeps the nation moving like nothing else is the possible suspension (or abolition?) of IMU (Imposta Municipale Propria – a property tax) on family homes. Why is that?