After all, even had Lisbon been ratified, the Union would have remained a fragmented political actor, incapableof decisive action in times of international crisis or of wielding significant military force.
He has come to look like a peripheral president, incapableof taking action while Mexico is overtaken by China, the Caribbean and Central America in the race for foreign investment and jobs.
The proposed new electoral law risks turning the clock back to the days when Italy was repeatedly paralysed by coalition negotiations and run for most of the time by an all-encompassing Christian Democratic party that was incapableof decisive action.
The gold window may have to be closed tomorrow because we now have a government that seems incapable, not only of constructive leadership, but of any action at all.