SPOTLIGHT ON… ITALY
Salvation by Banker
A new technocratic government will only deepen the crisis of Italian democracy, says Lucia Rubinelli
Poles apart: former central banker Mario Draghi (top) is the embodiment of technocracy, but many voters, like Five Star supporters (below), demand radical change
On 3rd February, Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, tasked Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank, with the creation of a new government. The move followed three whirling weeks in which former prime minister Matteo Renzi pulled the plug on Giuseppe Conte’s government, a coalition led by the anti-system Five Star Movement and the centre-left Partito Democratico
This move, which left everyone dumbfounded, was allegedly motivated by disagreement over how to spend the EU’s “Next Generation” Covid recovery funds. After a clumsy attempt to stitch together a new majority in parliament, Conte was forced to resign. Mattarella organised a round of consultation with all parties and, when it became clear that there was no straightforward way to patch the government back together, decided to call on “Super Mario,” who duly installed his disciple Daniele Franco in the ministry of the economy, and put the Northern League’s Giancarlo Giorgetti in charge of economic development. These appointments together suggest those EU funds will be redirected towards investments in the industrial north, rather than state expenditure in the poorer south.