The outgoing prime minister assures that he has no intention of repeating in office, although a partial victory for the right would open the door for him to continue
“Nope”. That was the dry and direct response offered by Mario Draghi last week when he was asked at a press conference if he would be open to a second term as Italy’s prime minister. The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), who took over the reins of the country in February 2021 when supported by a very broad coalition of parties, ranging from the radical left to the extreme right, thought he had lasted in power until the first quarter of next year. It was then when the legislature reached its natural term, but last July he became one more victim of the eternal Italian political instability: it was then that he had to present his resignation when the coalition that supported him when he retired was blown up of it the 5 Star Movement, the League and Forza Italia.
At just 75 years old, Draghi does not seem willing to take charge of a new technical 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 of which the League and Forza Italia.
If the victory of the conservatives is not overwhelming and the possibility of new pacts between the parties opens up, the figure of the former president of the ECB will jump on stage again as a guarantee of stability and cohesion between diverse political forces. He would also present himself as a respected figure, generating external reassurance in a time of war, both for international investors and for European and NATO partners.
The presidency
Although its protagonist dryly rejects that possibility, a ‘Draghi bis’ government cannot be completely ruled out. His name, moreover, will always remain in the pools as a candidate to succeed the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, when he concludes his second term in 2029, if he does not decide to resign before, as his predecessor did, Giorgio Neapolitan. It would be the culmination of the career of the “grandfather at the service of the institutions”, as he defined himself, 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, mostly delivered by Brussels as credits and subsidies, and that now it will be up to his successor to complete.
“Draghi’s problem is that, although he had to focus on relaunching the economy, he reacted to the war in Ukraine with an extreme position in favor of the United States, in the face of greater autonomy from other nations around us. This put him off his agenda,” says Michele Prospero, professor of Political Science at La Sapienza University in Rome, who instead applauds the “serious management” shown by the former ECB president: “He managed to break with the schemes of the populism, rigorously distribute European aid and fight effectively against the pandemic.
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