Erstellt am: 5. 5. 2015 - 14:27 Uhr

Italy's new political stability?

Reality Check: political reform in Italy; Syria talks; how development aid works; film director Itamar Alcalay.

Italy’s new election law

Ever since the Second World War, Italy’s politics have been characterised by instability and fluctuation, having had several dozen governments in that time. Its economy is the third largest in the Eurozone, and it currently has a huge public debt – second only to Greece’s.

EPA/GIORGIO BENVENUTI

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi delivering a speech during an event of his party Partito Democratico (PD, Democratic Party) in Bologna on Sunday.

So it’s not surprising that a shake-up of the electoral law is a big part of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s reform agenda. On Monday the Italian parliament gave final approval to the legislation which Renzi says will guarantee a clear winner at elections, providing political stability and ending the backroom horse-trading between parties often needed to form coalition governments in Italy. Michael Day in Rome reports:

Development Aid

Ahead of today’s edition of FM4 Auf Laut, we hear from Martin Ledolter, managing director of the Austrian Development Agency about how development aid works:

Syria Talks

UN officials are holding separate “consultations” in Geneva with representatives of the Syrian government and from the Syrian opposition. We ask international security expert Shashank Joshi who wants what from whom and what the chances of some kind of deal are:

The View from Syria

Photographer Emma Le Blanc, who was in Austria recently for an event at the Salzburg Global Seminar, tells us about her experiences living in Syria as the war broke out and offers us an alternative perspective on the conflict.

"Four Years of Night"

Israeli film director Itamar Alcalay, in Vienna for the Ethnocineca film festival, talks about his latest work, which tells the story of a Jewish photographer who befriended members of a neo-Nazi gang in Paris in the 1970s.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to Friday from 12.00 to 14.00, and after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.