Commentary For over two decades, Italy has been in a phase of stagnation. Despite the obvious need for serious economic and structural reforms, the country is prevented from enacting them for several reasons, but there is one in particular that holds it back: the mentality of the Leopard. This mentality is brilliantly encapsulated in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel “Il Gattopardo” (The Leopard). Published posthumously, it portrays the decadence of the Sicilian aristocracy at the time of the unification of the various states on the Italian peninsula into a single country (the Risorgimento), as embodied in the character of Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina (called the “Leopard” after his family crest). Considering the social and political upheaval of the period as a threat to his class’s supremacy, Don Fabrizio pretends to support the introduction of a new regime in order to preserve the power and privileges of the aristocracy. As …