Italy Gets a Taste of Boris Johnson's Cake

Italy’s populist dream team has a radical plan to revive the country’s economy. Successive drafts of the coalition agreement between the League and the Five Star Movement, seen over the past few days, show the two parties are keen to press ahead with their lavish tax cuts and spending pledges, in spite of Italy’s mammoth public debt.

There’s a double contradiction at the heart of this program, though. The League and Five Star are asking the rest of the euro zone to help them fund their expensive promises — even though they go against the bloc’s budget rules. And while any such government would face a resounding “No” from its European partners, the populist groups don’t seem prepared to leave the currency union whose rules they so despise.