Den tidligere chef for Den europæiske Centralbank, Mario Draghi, er blevet bedt om at danne en ny regering i Italien. Det ventes i høj grad at blive en ekspert-regering, en slags national samlingsregering, mere end en politisk regering. Sigtet er at løse coronakrisen og skabe rammerne for at løse Italiens tunge, økonomiske problemer. Bliver der megen modstand mod Draghi, ventes nyvalg til efteråret, men der er forventninger om, at Draghi vil sidde regeringsperioden ud.
Former ECB chief Mario Draghi set to head new Italian government
To avoid snap elections, Italy’s president has summoned former ECB chief, Mario Draghi to form new Italian government. We believe if a Draghi government sees the light of day, it will be to complete the legislature, as it seems unlikely the president would expend so much political capital on appointing a high profile figure only to face an emergency
President Mattarella mandates Draghi to form a national government
With his hands tied, Italian President Mattarella took decisive action saying: “in the current emergency situation the country cannot afford a snap election and that a high profile “non-political” national unity government was needed to tackle the multi-faceted challenges of a vaccination campaign, the relationship with Europe on the Next Gen EU plan and managing the upcoming end to the redundancy ban.
Although he refrained from naming Mario Draghi, it was shortly announced that the President had invited the former European Central Bank president.
Draghi has now accepted the nomination and will soon start the first round of consultations which we expect to conclude before the end of the week.
Draghi, the pragmatist
Draghi’s name has been touted several times as the best candidate to lead a national unity government, both by Renzi on the centre-left side and by Berlusconi on the centre-right as his high profile and track record at the helm of the ECB make him the best candidate to deal with the complexities of NextGen EU management.
His pragmatism and non-ideologic approach could help him strike the necessary balance within the cross-parliamentary majority.
Call it a non-political government if you will, but a national unity government will still need the support of members of parliament, and most decisions will inevitably have political connotations.
Should enough parliamentary support fail to materialise, a snap election in late Spring will be the last resort.
A list of obvious priorities, which remain formidable challenges
In his short speech, Draghi sketched very succinctly the key points he would focus on: winning the fight against the pandemic, completing the vaccination campaign and re-launching the country. The latter is itself an overarching objective, which would encompass the theme of the recovery plan – ample enough to occupy the remaining part of the current legislature, which is expiring in Spring 2023.
We believe that if a Draghi government sees the light of day, it will be to complete the legislature, as it seems unlikely that president Mattarella would expend so much political capital on appointing a high profile figure only to face an emergency and take the country to a late Spring 2021 snap election.
If Draghi manages to garner enough political support, he’ll have to leverage all his mediation and persuasion capabilities and to do so, he’ll need a high-profile cabinet.
