Everybody in Italy is full of hope. Well, it is said hope springs eternal. Here’s a list of Italy’s hopeful and their hopes. It is not a short list. Hopefully, you’ll understand why.
The Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi is hoping the EU will grant him flexibility. He’s also hoping the EU won’t get too sick of his attacks and kick him out alla Berlusconi. Mr Renzi hopes too that his digs at the EU will earn him a few votes – when the time comes.
Another Renzi hope is that all his trips will generate enough foreign trade to pull Italy’s economy out of the doldrums.
Mr Premier Renzi desperately hopes he won’t have to create a bad bank as this would reveal to whom Italy’s banks have been lending cash to.
Moreover, Mr Renzi hopes he can find the cash to keep Italy’s banking system from collapsing. Should this happen, all of Mr Renzi’s other hopes will evaporate into thin air.
Mr Renzi hopes Italians haven’t noticed that he gave up on his scrapping promises the day he took power.
More than a few Italians hope they can vote and kick Mr Renzi out.
Italy’s finance minister hopes he’s right about Italy’s GDP returning to real growth after last year’s not so inspiring performance.
Italy’s politicos in general hope they can keep their profitable little schemes afloat. They also hope they will never have to govern properly.
The dreaded honest Five Star Movement hopes it can uncover enough skulduggery for it to beat Mr Renzi when elections are called. The Five Star people hope that elections will be called sooner rather than later. In the meantime the 5 Starlets hope they can install mayors in at least a couple of major cities including Rome.
Italians in general are hoping their nation will eventually be able to kiss goodbye to the seemingly interminable economic crisis. Lots of Italians are also hoping they won’t lose their jobs while Italians without jobs are hoping they will find something. At least a few Italians hope their nation will end up with political leaders who are not hopeless. A small minority of Italians hope Italy can end up with a Ms Merkel type leader.
Italians working abroad hope, one day, they will be able to return home. Other Italians hope they will be able to find work overseas. The parents of these wayward Italians hope their children won’t have to leave Italy in order to start their lives.
A whole bunch of well qualified teachers, around 30,000 or so, hope Italy’s government won’t forget them. The government, on the other hand, hopes it can forget them.
Businesses in Italy hope taxes won’t go up again except that they probably will later this year. Businesses hope Italy’s red tape won’t strangle them. They also hope they won’t go bust.
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Italy’s legions of small businesses hope that someone, someday, will support and assist them.
Italian mafia bosses hope they won’t get caught and their political friends hope so too.
Many Italians hope they will have a pension to look forward to. They also hope Italy’s tax, education and justice systems are reformed properly one fine day.
Some Italians, but not all, hope corruption can be stamped out in Italy.
Gay Italians hope they will soon be able to enter into legally recognised civil partnerships.
The Roman Catholic Church hopes gay Italians will never be able to form legally recognised civil partnerships.
The current Pope hopes he can reform the Roman Catholic Church while at least a few within the church hope he cannot and hope that he dies trying.
Old Silvio Berlusconi hopes he can make another comeback. He also hopes his distinctly dodgy candidate for the post of mayor of Rome will win.
Italy’s right wing hopes the immigrant crisis will cause real problems as this may allow it to grab power.
Italy’s Northern League political party hopes nobody will realise it never really ended its ties with organised crime. The leader of the party hopes he can become the new Berlusconi and has been attacking Italy’s magistrature in the hope this will produce votes.
Lots of hope. Not all Italians are so hopeful though.
Tragically, one Italian mother in Macerata recently killed her child and herself. Other Italians have been killing their families and themselves.
Generally though, Italians remain hopeful. They have remained hopeful for decades. Hope is intrinsic to Italian culture.
In Italy, hope really does spring eternal which is precisely what the nation’s not so wonderful leaders continue to hope.
Is hope hopeless in Italy? One hopes not.
