Mario Draghi, a Savior in the Land of Miracles?

He also intends to enact major reforms (in public administration, justice, taxation, the health system and schools), promote massive investments for innovative companies as well as for education and research, develop public policies in favor of young people, of gender equality and of the southern Mezzogiorno region, and launch major public investments. All this under the framework of European Union membership, "ties to the eurozone are irreversible" he said, so too are ties to the Atlantic Alliance.  

Will Mario Draghi be able to carry out this near Herculean program? This is evidently his intention. The government's program is therefore his own. Although he has neither parliamentarian nor political party support, Mario Draghi has cards up his sleeve. He is well prepared and has, for some years now, been thinking about solutions to Italy's structural problems. He will also benefit from the enlightened advice of the President of the Republic, an experienced politician. His professional background means that he is himself very accustomed to negotiations with politicians at the highest level. He has placed close colleagues and experienced men, in this case senior civil servants and technicians, in key positions of the executive branch. They will apply his economic, environmental and digital development policies without question. He will use his immense credibility on the European level - it will be measured as of his first Council of Heads of State and Government - and draw on his good standing with the new American administration. With him at the helm, Italy can hope to begin its great return in the European Union and the concert of nations, especially as it holds the Presidency of the G20 this year. However the political parties, currently keeping a low profile, may not stay quiet for long: they will soon try to promote the interests of their voters, all the more so since important municipal elections will be held next spring.

The League will continuously oscillate between its responsible wing on the one hand, based mainly in the north of the country, which pushed Matteo Salvini to support Mario Draghi in order to obtain assistance for business, and its more populist side on the other, who never fail to take up criticism of immigration for example. The League will probably be a party "of struggle and government", as they say in Italy, and Salvini will play a balancing act between the two sensibilities. Thus he now proclaims himself European and would consider joining the European People's Party, but when a journalist asked him on February 16 whether his recognition of Italy's eurozone membership was now "irreversible", his answer was "Irreversible? Only death is irreversible". This is because he fears competition from the Brothers of Italy - which is becoming the only real opposition party, hoping to take advantage of the government's difficulties by attracting voters, hostile to banker Draghi, away from the League and the 5-Star Movement. 

However, Mario Draghi has some time ahead of him. At the beginning of 2022, the Chambers and a few other electors will elect the new President of the Republic, as Sergio Mattarella comes to the end of his term. If Mario Draghi is sure to win he will run for this office, and in that case early elections could follow. If he chooses not to run, his government could last until the end of the legislature in 2023. His task is certainly proving difficult. He will do his utmost to ensure that his government is not subjected to centripetal forces, and that it does not act incoherently, which could soon end up affecting his own popularity or even his credibility. That is why, in his speech to the Senate, Mario Draghi repeatedly called for national unity, referring explicitly to the immediate post-World War II period when all the antifascist parties were in power together and, according to him, laid the foundations for the reconstruction of the country. Mario Draghi is likely betting on the current state of mind of Italians, who are now more eager to unite to escape the current situation, than to sink into their traditional political divisions. In fact, everything will depend on his ability to disenthrall the country from the epidemic, to trigger a real economic recovery, not only in the industrial sector but also in the services sector, and to avoid deepening inequalities of any kind.

Copyright : Andrew Medichini / POOL / AFP