More bread, fewer circuses - Monti's vision for new Italy
Fresh bread on Sundays.
It may not sound like a call to revolution, but it has come to symbolise Premier Mario Monti's campaign to reshape Italy as a modern economy, as the reformist Premier takes on powerful lobbies that have stifled economic growth by keeping swathes of the economy in the hands of insiders.
These groups have long behaved like medieval guilds regulating standards, working hours and prices and Monti now has a lengthening list of enemies, which includes bakeries, taxi drivers, pharmacists, lawyers, notaries, railroad workers and news-stand dealers.
In one bold stroke, Monti issued a decree that overturns decades of arcane rules which have coddled many of the small businesses that represent an outsized portion of the Italian economy. Bakeries will be able to open on Sundays and holidays, opening the way for fresh competition to established shops. The notoriously closed taxi industry will be liberalised. Rules preventing pharmacies from setting up close to one another are being lifted.
"We want to create more space for competition and merit," said Monti.
Monti's mission is stirring waves of anger which indicate a tough battle ahead: Italian leaders have tried and failed to bust lobbies in the past, finding the old way of doing things simply too entrenched.
Since Monti issued his decree on January 20, taxi drivers have staged strikes to protest plans to issue more licences, angry truck drivers have erected blockades against increased taxes on fuel, even normally mild-mannered pharmacists, objecting to an expansion of drug stores and working hours, plan walkouts.
Monti and his team of economic experts, named to succeed Silvio Berlusconi when Italy's debt crisis began to spin out of control in November, first enacted stiff austerity measures to tackle the emergency.
A second sheaf of measures announced this year was aimed at reviving growth. That put him straight into the path of entrenched interests: unions, public employees and professional organisations, which have for decades cast a long shadow over politics and the economy.
Sectors Of Making Bread - News
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