CASTELBUONO, Sicily (CN) — They're calling him “Super Mario” and the expectations couldn't be any higher in Italy and in Brussels for what he can do to bring stability to one of Europe's most crisis-prone nations.
Italy has a new prime minister by the name of Mario Draghi, a 73-year-old former European Central Bank president tapped to lead a new “unity government” supported by nearly all Italy's major parties. He was formally given the mandate to be prime minister over the weekend and Italy's upper and lower chambers of parliament are expected to back his premiership later this week in confidence votes.
Dubbed “Super Mario” by Italian media, Draghi is not affiliated with a political party and he is viewed as a highly competent and respected technocratic leader suited to guide Italy through its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, an event that many see as its worst crisis since the end of World War II.
“With Draghi in power, Italy will be led by a heavyweight,” said Luigi Scazzieri, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank, in a recent briefing note.
Draghi's emergence as Italy's new prime minister following the collapse of a coalition led by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement at the end of January has been welcomed by financial markets, much of the national and European press and bureaucrats in Brussels, the European Union's capital.
Many on the hard left and hard right in Italy, though, see him as the choice of banks and Brussels and hardly the kind of leader who will deal with what they see as the country's deepest problems, whether that be its membership in the EU or hurdles to lifting up Italy's poorer southern regions.
For the moment, Draghi is viewed as the best person to give Italy and its warring political factions some breathing room – and stability – before the country heads to the polls again. The next general elections are slated to take place before June 1, 2023. Still, political experts believe Italy's political scene – and Draghi's crisis government – may implode before that when a new Italian president will be chosen in February 2022.
The president is elected by the parliament and holds a mostly ceremonial position under the Italian constitution, but the officeholder also has many powers, such as naming prime ministers. President Sergio Mattarella, for example, picked Draghi as a candidate after the political parties failed to reach a consensus.
Draghi's appointment staved off the possibility of early elections, something Italy's biggest party, the 5-Star Movement, dreads due to its collapse in the polls since it took the reins of government after emerging victorious in 2018 elections.
As the head of the EU's central bank, Draghi is portrayed as the savior of the EU's financial system when he said in 2012 that the bloc would do “whatever it takes” to keep the euro currency from collapsing. At the time, the EU was under immense strain in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis because of the massive public debts held by some nations, particularly Greece and Italy.
When he took over the EU's Frankfurt-based central bank in 2011, Europe was in a deep crisis and Draghi rose to the occasion, arguing for more financial and banking integration among EU nations and speaking out against austerity measures. With Europe and Italy again in crisis, many hope Draghi's elevation to Palazzo Chigi – the prime minister's building – will bode well for the European project and see “Super Mario” come to the EU's salvation again.
Italy's public debt soared in the past year and now stands at about $3 trillion – or roughly 160% of its gross domestic product – and experts see the country’s economic and financial woes as posing a major risk to the entire EU financial system. Most troubling is the prospect that Italy one day will be unable to service its debt payments.
