The inevitable loop of Italian politics repeated again this month when former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi - fresh from a tax fraud conviction - pulled his party's support for the technocrat government of Mario Monti.
He announced his return to politics as the man who would save Italy from the "abyss".
Later, as Monti was tendering his resignation, Berlusconi back tracked and said he would support a Monti-led centre-right coalition. But the damage is done and whether the coal...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.