Mr Silvio Berlusconi's government is facing major controversy over a new justice bill and rising unemployment this week, two issues which have mounted since he came to power in Italy last year.
He has a comfortable parliamentary majority, which insulates him from immediate political damage, but resentment is building up in the form of protests and strikes over his policies.
His critics accuse Mr Berlusconi of pursuing a personal agenda with the new justice bill. It allows defendants to ask for a trial to be suspended or even restarted if there is a "legitimate suspicion" that the judges were biased. It could be applied retrospectively, affecting court cases already under way. Mr Berlusconi and his former lawyer and defence minister, Mr Cesare Previti, are currently facing charges of bribing a judge in the mid-1980s to win control of a food company, a case still being heard in Milan courts. They deny the charges and say the judges have a political vendetta against them. This was part of the celebrated "Tangentopoli" scandal, which exposed corruption in the heart of business and government.
Mr Berlusconi's supporters say the bill will ensure everyone gets a fair trial, while his critics insist he is rewriting Italian legislation to suit himself. The critics' case is strengthened when one looks at other pieces of legislation dealing with similar issues. A separate bill has made it much more difficult for Italian investigators to get access to Swiss bank accounts. Another makes accounting rules less strict - in sharp contrast to the Enron and other accounting scandals in the United States, after which company directors have been made personally liable for false reporting.
Mr Berlusconi does not have much time for his critics, whom he tends to tarnish with an extreme left-wing or liberal agenda. Such a dismissive approach has served him relatively well at the hustings, combined with the powerful media empire he has used to propel him into power and support him there.
These bills have certainly exposed Italians to this side of his politics, but as yet there is little sign that they are greatly disenchanted. Mr Berlusconi's economic record has been patchy. His willingness to placate trade unions has disenchanted the employers, while his macro-economic approach is constrained by EU rules. Job losses at Fiat this week cannot be blamed on him, but indicate a looming challenge.