You have to feel sorry for Silvio. While he was in government the European media went to town detailing his every infringement of the democratic norms (of which there were plenty). Since Romano Prodi has been in power scarcely a whimper – for example, how many people outside of Italy know that the current Prime Minister is amongst those being investigated as part of the ‘why not?’ enquiry into corruption and fraud?

How many people know that his justice minister Clemente Mastella, also under investigation, has made official attempts to have the investigating magistrate replaced? On Friday, after months of speculation, it was revealed in the press that Mastella was officially under investigation as part of the enquiry into corruption, and missapropriation of European Union funding.

Mastella promptly issued a statement that threatened the government’s downfall – saying that it would be best to end the government and go to the polls in the spring. The justice minister, thanks to the tiny majority that Prodi enjoys, has a particular weight with his words. And then, strangely, yesterday the case was taken off De Magistris by the regional Procura or judicial authority, citing incompatibility.

That various people have done all they could do to have this difficult investigating judge removed from the scene is apparent.

What is also apparent is the cross-party support for this blatant abuse of power. Not one party has come out officially in support of De Magistris (Antonio Di Pietro’s Italiani dei Valori has published a blog post criticising the move, but there’s been no suggestion that Di Pietro will do anything more than blog on the theme).

Now in a normal functioning democracy when the Prime Minister and Minister for Justice are both under investigation in a fraud and corruption case, and the investigation is tampered with officially, one would expect the opposition to have a field day. An event like this should at least cause resignations, if not the fall of the government. Instead, not a whimper.

While news broadcasts and newspapers give the impression that Italy’s political parties are numerous and hopelessly divided over ideology – in reality from the left through to the right they’re a unified politburo when it comes to anyone investigating political corruption or abuse of power.

It’s about time we saw some articles appearing in the international press about the threat that Prodi and his government pose to Italian democracy.