During two weeks Silvio Berlusconi has suffered two consecutive defeats. The first in the local elections . He lost the elections in Milan, the northern capital .  after  two decades of  center-right  government; in  Naples, the capital of the south, as well as in other major cities like Turin, Trieste and Bologna.

Two weeks after, the setback has been resoundingly reaffirmed by the vote on four referendums that have canceled four laws passed by the  Berlusconi government : one  for  to the  building of nuclear power plants; another in  favor  of water services privatization and,  more importantly,  the right of the Head of the Government and Ministers  to avoid appearing  in trials for "legittimo impedimento"  that is   for  supposedly  government commitments.

Media commentators  believe  that these  consecutive reverses prelude to political defeat of the center-right coalition in the general election by 2013 or, most likely, in the spring of 2012, given the growing troubles of  the Berlusconi’s coalition.

If these predictions will come true, they  will cancel an anomaly in Europe. A government that is not only a center-right one (so is  now  the majority of European countries), but  also led by a premier that is a serious threat to democratic institutions. It is not a coincidence that he repeatedly tried to change the Constitution, attacking the balancing role of the Presidency of the Republic and of  the Constitutional Court.

Berlusconi’s government is not a “normal”  center-right government. The problem is not only  linked to his populism  or to the prevailing  corruption, or  the  style of his private life, including  the wild saga of his sex parties. His government has been responsible of wrong policies in  foreign affairs as well as in the economic and social  areas. Among other things, he openly supported  the US attack on Iraq, siding with Blair and Aznar against Germany and France, so shattering a traditional relationship between the three  major continental countries of the eurozone.

As far as the  economy is concerned, the  Berlusconi’s government in almost two legislatures has taken Italy through a lost decade. The economy stagnated, and neo-liberal reforms of labor market have made Italy the country with the highest rate of youth unemployment. Faced with the threat of Sergio Marchionne ,the Fiat-Chrysler MD, to close the historic Mirafiori plant in Turin by transferring  abroad  the remaining car production , he sided with Marchionne  in his  challenge to  FIOM, the militant metalworkers’ Trade Union.

At the beginning of the current legislature he totally eliminated the tax on house ownership, regardless of asset value, as a pure gift -worth three billion euro- to  richer  householders. A populist and foolish choice for a highly indebted country, unable to finance  crucial investments for employment, education and research.

The  left-wing government  which will  possibly follow Berlusconi’s departure – or any other coalition - will therefore find a critical condition, marked by economic stagnation and high unemployment in the framework of a third major public debt in the world. A dismal situation, aggravated by the requirement by European Union to balance the budget by 2014, that is a cut of  public spending by 40 billion euro (about $ 55 billion).

And this while the country has a growth rate of around one per cent and has already cut spending for schools and research and stopped any public investment. So, once freed  by indecent Berlusconi's government, Italy’s new (hopefully left-wing) should have to cope with the irrational policy of the Frankfurt-Brussels axis.

The outgoing governor of  Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi, candidate for the presidency of the European Central Bank, recently said that the need to reduce gradually the  high public debt – while  the current deficit is 4 percent of the GDP, among the lowest of European Union. But he also added that the country cannot exit from the crisis without a revival of investment. But we know that is going to result in an impossible task under the senseless European Commission deflationist policy.

The reasonable solution, discussed several times over the last decade, would be a different implementation of the Maastricht Treaty that sets up the deficit up to  three per cent of GDP. Given  the present European environment of stagnation and high unemployment, the capital spending aimed at strengthening the growth  of the member states should be excluded from the calculation of three percent deficit.

In this way, the debt reduction would be assisted by the higher growth of GDP. And such a measure would have a dynamic and cumulative effect throughout the whole European Union. This change would also be either rational or useful to prevent the possible breakdown in the Eurozone, hit by the current ineffective management of sovereign debt crises in peripheral countries.

If, as  many Italians  hope , Italy will make better the political landscape in Europe, by firing Berlusconi and  his government, then one could  also hope for   changing  the European Union’s policy that menaces  to maintain the eurozone  in permanent  stagnation, heading it towards a new lost decade. While Italy is trying to got rid Europe of Berlusconi, one would also hope that Europe  would deal with the  economic crisis  with a less irrational and harmful  economic policy.