Inside out

Our fortnightly digest of facts and rumours from Brussels and beyond.

Italian tragedy

Through all the trials and tribulations of the debt crisis, one slender compensation that the Greek people have been able to hang onto is that there is a certain amount of sympathy right across Europe and the rest of the world for their plight. Few people in Europe really believe that the ordinary pensioners, unemployed youth and other Greek victims of the crisis really deserve their suffering. If only the same could be said of the Italians, who aside from anything else, have repeatedly chosen to re-elect a leader who makes much-derided former US President George W Bush look like a colossus.