Italy needs time to recover from decline, says former leader

Italy "needs time" to recover from its "decline" amid an "unpredictable" domestic political situation, said former prime minister Massimo D'Alema.

"It's difficult for Italy to come back to the 90s," when the country was "influential" and "unexpectedly" joined the euro, he told EUobserver in a recent interview.

"The former centre-left represented the most respected kind of [Italian] leadership in the last 30 years," he said, citing former prime ministers Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Ro...