from roughly 1948 to 1992, Italy was dominated by loquacious, patrician Christian Democrats. It was crystal-clear what they stood for (Catholicism) and what they opposed (communism), although there were plenty of grey areas when it came to corruption and crime. The second republic, from 1993 to 2011, was dominated by Berlusconi and by his conflation of liberty with libertinism: he warped the country‘s democracy into a strange sort of videocracy, complete with showgirls in parliament and bunga-bunga at home.

Quite what comes next is still unclear.