News Analysis: One year into Renzi's gov't earning kudos for incomplete Italy reform plans

A year into his mandate as Italy's prime minister, Matteo Renzi's reform-minded agenda is still a work in progress. But the 40-year-old Tuscan is still earning accolades from many political analysts for being able make progress on any reforms at all.

Renzi formally became Italy's youngest post-World War II prime minister on Feb. 22, 2014. He raised eyebrows soon after, unveiling an ambitious agenda that included reforming the way Italy conducted elections, governed, taxed, worked, and operated its court system. The brash promises were particularly newsworthy because Italy is seen as notoriously resistant to change.

Nearly a year later, most of those reforms are still pending, though the jobs reform and electoral reforms are nearly completed. A tax code overhaul was originally scheduled to be announced Friday, but has been pushed back to March.

Still, analysts said that the Renzi government has so far left its mark because by pursuing such an array of reforms, the former mayor of Florence has already upended the way change is brokered.

"Renzi gets good marks so far, not for what he has achieved, but because he has reshaped the nature of the relationship between political actors," Mauro Calise, a political scientist with Federico II University in Naples, said in an interview.

Franco Pavoncello, president of Rome's John Cabot University, agreed.

"When Renzi announced those reforms, people said he could never succeed," Pavoncello told Xinhua. "It's a slow process, but he is showing reforms can be done, that the impossible is possible."

Calise, Pavoncello, and other commentators say Renzi is helping the prime minister's role evolve into more of a presidential position.

The electoral reform will give a dominant political party more stability, and the political reform that would dramatically downside the role of parliament's upper house will diminish the influence of the legislature and increase the prime minister's influence in comparison.

Sergio Mattarella, Renzi's hand-picked candidate for the largely ceremonial role of president who took office less than a month ago, has already given signs he is open to such a revolution.

"The end result will be a kind of U.S.-style government," said Gian Franco Gallo, a Milan-based political affairs analyst.

The young and charismatic Renzi is tailor made for the social media age, but his biggest strength is most likely the lack of a viable alternative.

Opposition in parliament is scattered and disorganized, and once strong dissent within his own political party is eroding over time. That is why, despite what is still anemic economic growth, stubbornly high unemployment levels, media criticism about a lack of coherence in his strategies, and the approval of little more than a third of the electorate few doubt Renzi's staying power.

"Usually, once a leader's approval levels dip below 40 percent or so they are seen as vulnerable," said Maria Rossi, from the Opinioni polling firm. "But Renzi's support levels don't look so bad compared to his rivals, who all know that if push comes to shove Renzi can just force new elections and almost surely strengthen his position just because the opposition is so weak." Endit