No easy solution is in sight for the Christian Democrats
As expected, Italy's 39th government since the fall of Fascism in 1943 went the way of all the others last week. But nothing demonstrated the changing times and mood more than the manner in which the government fell.
In 1973, Premier Giulio Andreotti, who then headed a center-right coalition made up of his Christian Democrats and the conservative Liberal Party, lost 13 consecutive parliamentary votes before calling it quits. This time Andreotti's 18-month-old government did not so much fall as dissolve. To avoid...