Poor Romano Prodi. The year began badly for Italy's slightly dishevelled but quietly effective prime minister, hit by two adverse events, both from the southern region of Campania: a vesuvian eruption in the ongoing crisis of Neapolitan refuse collection, and the resignation of Clemente Mastella, justice minister, after he and his wife were hit by corruption allegations concerning appointments at a state hospital near Naples.

The first provides an extreme illustration of sclerotic government. The Naples garbage crisis goes back nearly two decades and has seen multiple, expensive but futile efforts to resolve it in the face of Camorra mob control of the trucks and dumps. Mr Prodi's new "Trash Tsar" is the ninth to try to tackle it. The second event - which threatens Mr Prodi's razor-thin parliamentary majority - is symptomatic of Italy's failure to deal with rampant corruption, 15 years after the tangentopoli (bribe-city) scandals brought down the ruling political establishment.