Italy's prime cuts leave bitter taste

AS Italy's Senate gave final approval yesterday to the country's austerity budget, politicians did not have to go far to see the consequences.

The Senate's restaurant has become a symbolic battleground of the cuts forced on Italy by financial markets and the EU.

Waiters who had been notified of lay-offs briefly locked themselves inside the dining room.

The confrontation is a test of Italy's ability to reform its feather-bedded institutions. Many Italians find the E33 billion ($42.4bn) of cuts and tax increases difficult and are losing patience with Mario Monti, the new technocrat Prime Minister, whose popularity has slumped from 61 per cent to 46 per cent in the past week.

The Senate restaurant became a notorious example of the privileges of Italy's political caste when its heavily subsidised menu was leaked in August. Elected representatives receiving E14,000 a month paid only E1.60 for spaghetti with anchovies, followed by a grilled fillet of beef for just E5.23.

It emerged that the Italian treasury was picking up 80 per cent of the bill. Amid public outrage, the Senate raised the cost of the beef fillet to E24. However, the senators then went to eat in the nearby lower house, where subsidies continued until a new buffet could be set up.

The result was a 70 per cent drop in business at the Senate restaurant, and the catering company notified nine of its 68 staff - two cooks, six waiters and a cigarette seller - that they would be laid off.