> have been economically stable for 30+ years Assuming 'stable' is a synonim for stagnationg and slow decline then yes. The 90's were pretty good but there has

> have been economically stable for 30+ years Assuming 'stable' is a synonim for stagnationg and slow decline then yes. The 90's were pretty good but there has been been almost no real growth after the Euro was introduced in 1999. It's even worse in relative terms. Back in 1995-2000 Italy's GDP per capita was around 130% of the EU average, now it's less than 100% and not that far from the more succesful Eastern European countries which joined in 2004 (around 80-85%). And these numbers only tell a part of the story since the average GDP per capita went down significancly after most ex-communist countries joined the EU between 2004 and 2007. France, Germany, UK & Italy had almost equal GDP per capita in 2000, Italy was even ahead of France and Britain during most of the 1990's and look what happened later: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=IT-FR-DE-GB-EE https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locat... Obiouviously Italy is still a rich country with a "strong" economy but if it stays on the same trajectory for the next few decades it will likely become one of the poorest countries in the EU.