Why Italy, like Europe, is crying out for big reform

AT FIRST blush Italy, the euro area’s third-biggest economy, seems to be doing well in a continent beset by gloom. This year it has grown faster than both France and Germany. The big chunk of money it secured from the EU’s post-covid recovery fund is beginning to arrive, and that is meant to bring more of the pro-growth reforms that Brussels has insisted on for every tranche it pays out. Fears in some quarters that Italy’s new right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, would reverse the progress made by Mario Draghi, her predecessor—progress that led this newspaper to choose Italy as its country of the year in 2021—have so far proved unfounded.