I too hope that Italy's new prime minister won't waste money in financing startups. The issue of Italy is primarily cultural: it's stubbornly resistant to any

I too hope that Italy's new prime minister won't waste money in financing startups. The issue of Italy is primarily cultural: it's stubbornly resistant to any change, blocked by an obtuse bureaucracy and an even worse judiciary (with a supreme court that regularly mangles or reverts any law meant to modernise the job regulations, for example). People are unprofessional, hiring doesn't follow any rigorous process, companies are often entirely controlled by their owner with very little input from the upper management. The language barrier makes it impossible to hire talents from abroad. To break this provincialism, Italy desperately needs to change its business culture. Encouraging startups pretending they can be as effective as US ones, in this context, would be just silly.