Thanks to decades of excessive government spending, Italy has very high levels of public debt. Over the last few years, it has received official and unofficial bailouts from the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, and is considered at high risk for a budgetary meltdown when another recession occurs.
There’s a chance, however, that all this bad news may pave the way for good news. There are elections in early March and Silvio Berlusconi, a potential frontrunner as the next Prime Minister, has proposed a flat tax.
Source