Opera-goers streaming out of La Scala in Milan on Thursday night turned on their phones to discover that Italy finally seemed to have a new government.
The opera they had been watching, Aida, ends with the doomed lovers dying together, while locked in an underground prison. Some members of Italy’s new government might see that as an apt symbol of their country’s fate inside the European single currency. Paolo Savona, who will serve as Italy’s Europe minister, has described the euro as a “German cage”.
However, Italy’s new administration has now promised to stay inside the cage for the foreseeable future. In fact, the coalition between the League and the Five Star Movement was only accepted by Italy’s president once the europhobic Mr Savona was blocked from taking up the even more sensitive job of finance minister. In a further sign that the League is backing away from its longstanding flirtation with leaving the euro, a road sign proclaiming “Basta Euro” that stood outside the party’s headquarters was painted over last week.