Chip by chip, outside investors and regulators have for months been making an impression on the monolith that is Italian corporate governance. This week, two large cracks appeared that seemed to be a victory for activist investors.

The Benetton family on Monday swallowed considerable embarrassment and withdrew a candidate it was promoting for an internal audit body at insurer Generali. In the same afternoon, Pirelli, the tyre company, abstained from a director election at Telecom Italia, scared of running counter to a recent ruling on business relationships by Consob, the market regulator.