In normal circumstances Lucas Papademos, Greece’s new prime minister, would not be sitting in the seat of power. The former European Central Bank vice-president has won his nomination, not by election, but after two weeks of haggling between discredited politicians.
Italy too is going through a similar process. By next week, it is hoped that months of political paralysis will be resolved with the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister in favour of an independent technocrat capable of pushing through reforms so far shirked by il Cavaliere in his characteristic fashion. Mario Monti, the European Union’s former competition commissioner, is emerging as the favoured candidate.
It is stating the obvious to say that appointing an unelected technocrat is less than ideal. Yet when the system is dysfunctional, emergency solutions are required. In both countries voters are so deeply alienated from their own corroded political class that only an outsider seems able to overcome the immediate obstacles to the painful reforms needed to restore growth.