Recession erodes Monti's prospects - FT.com San Filippo Neri, one of Rome's largest public hospitals, is festooned with banners protesting against government cutbacks, while women across Italy have been warned not to plan to give birth on February 12 when specialist doctors are planning to strike. As Italy approaches general elections late next month, popular anger is visibly growing over public sector spending cuts and tax increases imposed by Mario Monti's technocrat government, undermining his bid for a second stint as prime minister at the head of a newly formed centrist alliance. Now in its seventh quarter, Italy's longest postwar recession is taking its toll and Mr Monti is largely taking the blame, despite his efforts to justify the unpopular measures that Italy's "emergency" forced him to adopt. "I had to jump on to a derailed train that was heading for the precipice," Mr Monti has said of his leap from economics professor to appointed technocrat 14 months ago. Blaming the record of his predecessor, Mr Monti's campaign is shifting the focus of his attacks away from "extremists" on the left to the centre-right led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. This week Mr Monti derided him as the "Pied Piper of Hamelin who deluded" Italians in his three election victories, admitting that he too had succumbed to the spell of the billionaire media mogul by voting for him in 1994. Although Mr Monti is fast learning the lessons of politics - in his latest u-turn he suggested that his much hated property tax could be reduced - polls show he is making little impact. Mr Berlusconi is closing the gap with the centre-left Democrats but Mr Monti is trailing well behind, vying for third place with the eurosceptic Five Star Movement led by Beppe Grillo, a stand-up comedian. Latest economic statistics do little to support Mr Monti's claim that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Youth unemployment hit 37.1 per cent in November 2012, up seven points from when Mr Monti took office a year earlier and despite reforms passed last July intended to boost labour mobility. Consumer spending has registered its biggest postwar fall, while plummeting industrial production is 25 per cent below its pre-2008 highs. Despite the grim picture - which masks some silver linings including strong export growth and a declining budget deficit - investors, at odds with ordinary Italians, continue to put faith in Mr Monti's mix of austerity and economic reforms. Since Mr Berlusconi surrendered office to the former EU commissioner, the Milan stock market has gained 17 per cent while the "spread " - the yield gap between benchmark Italian and German bonds - has halved. It would seem that the worse the economy gets then stronger are the hopes, at least of the international community, that "Super Mario" will keep his programme on track. With public debt hitting a record high of over €2tn - second only to Greece in the eurozone as a percentage of GDP - Mr Monti is seen as the guarantor that Italy will adhere to the fiscal restraints imposed by Brussels to avert a euro meltdown. "I have no worries about this election," commented a European ambassador in Rome, confidently predicting that Mr Monti would play a significant role in the next government, most likely as finance minister in a coalition led by the Democratic party. But in Mr Monti's camp there is no such complacency. One veteran politician, speaking privately, expressed deep disappointment at the poll numbers, fearing that a poor result on February 25 would put the centrists in a weak position to negotiate a coalition government with the Democrats. Riccardo Barbieri, economist for Mizuho International, says the main risk is that economic and structural reforms in the next parliament will fall short of what is needed to restore growth and reduce debt. "Given its links to the trade unions, the Democratic party would find it difficult to support the sweeping public sector restructuring and further liberalisation of the labour market advocated by Mr Monti," Mr Barbieri added. Meanwhile, planned health sector cuts are on hold. Lorenzo Sommella, director of the San Filippo Neri hospital, explained that Mr Monti's decision to bring Enrico Bondi, head of the government's "spending review," into his new political movement has delayed the process. Mario Monti has considerable support from Italy's business community, but some big names are absent or silent. Corrado Passera, economic development minister under Mr Monti and former banker, dropped out of the centrist alliance at the last minute. Some suggest disagreement over political strategy. Emma Marcegaglia, former head of Confindustria business lobby, also opted out. Others prefer neutrality, keen not to spoil future ties with Pier Luigi Bersani, the Democrats" leader and likely next prime minister. The head of a big bank said many business leaders thought it "made little difference" if Mr Bersani or Mr Monti won, as their reform agenda would be similar. Italy was in a far deeper crisis a year ago and in more need of Mr Monti then than now, he said. Still, Mr Monti's political vehicle "Civic Choice" was set up and funded by Ferrari's Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and includes Alberto Bombassei, head of Brembo brakes company and former Confindustria deputy chief, as a candidate for parliament. Mr Sommella described Mr Bondi's initial plan, now dropped, to close the entire hospital as "absurd." But it still risks losing 120 of its 540 beds. "We are fighting this strongly," he said.