The greatest challenge of all, in terms of structural reforms, arose when Italy, immediately after national unity, prepared to participate in the life of Europe with a population that was 75 per cent illiterate, against 30 per cent in the United Kingdom and 10 per cent in Sweden. National political leaders, administrators, teachers, North and South, joined together to fight the battle for literacy.
In the end we did come up to the level of the rest of Europe, and this was one of the factors behind the economic miracle after the Second World War. In 1992 we were confronted with a much more severe budget crisis than those facing some European countries today.