The outgoing prime minister assures he has no intention of repeating in office, although a partial victory for the right would open the door for him to continue.
“No”. That was Mario Draghi’s dry and direct answer last week when asked at a press conference whether he was open to a second term as prime minister of Italy. The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), who took over the reins of the country in February 2021, backed by a very broad coalition of parties ranging from the radical left to the far right, thought he was in power until the first quarter of next year. Then the legislature reached its natural term, but last July he again fell victim to the perennial Italian political instability: it was then that he had to resign when the coalition that supported him when he retired from it blew up the five-star movement, the League and Forza Italia.
At 75, Draghi seems unwilling to take charge of a new tech government. It would be a far-fetched scenario in the event that the right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, candidate for Fratelli d’Italia (FdI, Brothers of Italy), and whose Liga and Forza Italia.
If the Conservatives’ victory is not overwhelming and the possibility of new pacts between the parties opens up, the figure of the former ECB president will jump back on the podium as a guarantee of stability and cohesion between various political forces. He would also present himself as a respected figure, generating external reassurance in wartime, for international investors as well as European and NATO partners.
Although the protagonist dryly dismisses that possibility, a ‘Draghi bis’ government cannot be ruled out altogether. In addition, his name will always remain in the pools as a candidate to succeed President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, when he ends his second term in 2029, if he does not decide to resign earlier, as his predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, did. . It would be the pinnacle of the career of the “grandfather in the service of the institutions”, as he himself defined, at whose door the politicians knocked a year and a half ago to relaunch the vaccination campaign against covid and make good use of manna Europe after the pandemic.
In a few months, Draghi and his team managed to launch an ambitious reform plan, the so-called National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which provides for the receipt of 191.5 billion euros until 2026, largely provided by Brussels as credits and grants. , and that now it will be up to his successor to complete.
“Draghi’s problem is that, while he had to focus on restarting the economy, he responded to the war in Ukraine with an extreme stance in favor of the United States, versus greater autonomy from other countries around us. This pushed him off his agenda,” said Michele Prospero, professor of political science at La Sapienza University in Rome, who instead applauds the former ECB president’s “serious management”: “He managed to break with the plans. of populism, rigorously distribute European aid and fight the pandemic effectively.
Source: La Verdad
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
