Some complementary remarks on Italy are due.
I don't think it is possible tosay that Italy "was in the hands" of a scoialist, or even a left party, and
certainly not "for a long time"

The unique feature of post-1943 Italy, i.e., since the fall of Fascism and the creation of a fully-fledged electoral democracy, was the dominance of a Communist party as the main force on the Left, with only a weak Socialist and an even weaker Social Democratic parties competing with it, a n d as trong leftish faction in the ruling and ideologically blurred Christian Democratic party, which controlled a part of the trade unions.

Fear of a Communist takeover polarised Italian society and prevented a regular, "normal" electoral pendulum swing between democratic left and right wing parties

That was the structural reason for endemic corruption in Italy.

The party which ruled incessantly and in changing coalitions for almost half a century was the Christian Democrats, and it was the main party of the Left, the Communists, which was permanently excluded.
Only the end of the Cold War permitted a realignemnt in which the Socialist party PSI, having been completely corrupted after years of supplying the crucialo 10% for a coalition with the Christian Democrats, has been totally wiped out. And it was the erstwhile ruling party, the Christian Democrats, which was wiped out , with left-, centre- and right-wing factions drifting in different directions. Only the reinvention of the old Communist party as a Democratic Party of the Left allowed it to compete for power and win it, but only very briefly, in a n electoral alliancce with former Christian Democrats (like Romano Prodi) and without achieving anything.

So Italy is in many senses unique, perhaps even "more unique than others".