France has become Italy – and not in a good way

France is taking the place of Italy, it seems, as the basket case of Europe. The turn-over of prime ministers in France – five now since the start of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term in 2022 – is worse even than Italy has ever managed.

Since the fall of fascism in 1945 Italy has notoriously had 69 governments – roughly one a year – which has made governing a tricky people even trickier. But France has had nearly two a year of late.

That France is now, in the words of Marine Le Pen, ‘the sick man of Europe’, is especially pleasing to Italians.

Macron, who refuses to step down as President, or call another snap parliamentary election, presides over a political system in a state of paralysis and a country bracing for serious social unrest.

By contrast, the government of Italy’s fi