EU, von der Leyen-bis a nightmare for Meloni
In Europe he’s back Stability Pactthe long negotiations on budget policy are back and the “hawks” of austerity are ready to fly high again. Italy has yet to formalize its commissioner in the person of the Minister for European Affairs Raffaele Fittobut there is already certainty that for the Apulian exponent of Fratelli d’Italia, for our country and for all the opponents of austerity in the second mandate of Ursula von der Leyen there will be a lot to sweat about.
A trio of hardliners have been nominated by their respective governments for roles in tomorrow’s Commission. The first is the outgoing vice-president of the Berlaymont Palace, Valdis Dombrovskisformer Prime Minister of Latvia. Dombrovskis, 53, has been in the Commission since 2014 and was deputy to von der Leyen and Jean-Claude Juncker. He will be joined by the European Commissioner for Ecological Transition Wopke Hoekstraformer Finance Minister in Mark Rutte’s Dutch government during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last but not least, Austria has appointed Finance Minister Magnus Brunnerexponent of the popular centre-right OVP.
What do they have in common? Dombrovskis, Brownie And Hoekstra? The common hostility to the excessive expansion of European solidarity and the perception that, in their opinion, for the most interventionist countries the recreation is over. And we must return to the rigorous dictate of the Stability Pactof the cut in public spendingof returning to the parameters, whatever the cost. Budget flexibility? Just for the expenses of the Recovery Fund and the joint plans on digital and green transition, for the rest no.
Also famous are the numerous episodes in which the exponents of the “rigore trio” faced Italy. First of all, obviously, Dombrovskis of which we remember, in 2018, the arm wrestling with the Conte I government together with his colleague Pierre Moscovici. Appointed Paolo Gentiloni to Economic Affairs, in 2019, it was Dombrovskis who appointed him as vice president superior to him, extinguishing the hopes of the M5S-PD government again led by Conte of a great European discontinuity. In 2020, when the Commission suspended the Stability Pact at Italy’s request, Dombrovskis asked for its prompt return to work, then in 2021 explicitly attacking the Italian leadership of the Recovery Plan.
By Hoekstra Politico.eu wrote calling him “Mr. No”: “on the European scenehis support for budgetary rigour ― a country that doesn’t respect the bloc’s spending rules should not receive EU funds, he once said ― has earned him a mixed reputation, especially when he went out of his way to refuse to pool EU debt to deal with the pandemic crisis. He later said he regretted it.” But what if the budget or economic affairs portfolio were to fall into his hands now? Attentive observers recall the hard line taken by the Hoekstra-Rutte duo in 2020 against the Conte II government that called for debt mutualization against the pandemictogether with France and Spain, finding a systemic rival in Holland.
Browniewho came to politics after a long career in the private sector, did not attack Italy insistently but embodied the new line of the Austrian People’s Party who, after Covid-19, played the part of the most extremist hawks. Even surpassing the Netherlands in the hierarchy of the most hostile opponents of any concession to solidarity on public accounts in budget negotiations. In the name of its “sacred egoism”, Austria makes austerity a point of reference. And Brunner, who has been head of Austrian Finance for three years, is the interpreter of this line in the name of which he has even gone so far as to “lese majesty” by scolding none other than Mario Draghi a month before the fall of his government, in June 2022, when he called on the government of national unity to put the public accounts in order.
The presence of political figures so committed to the issue of austerity explains why the portfolio that Dense will be decisive in understanding whether Italy will be able to have a say in tomorrow’s Commission. Whose leader, Ursula von der Leyenhowever, belongs to the same German CDU that was a supporter of austerity, with Angela Merkelthe real mastermind. In short, decisive times are coming. And we will understand where the wind will blow already from the autumn battle on the budget. If the three hawks are given weighty portfolios in the economic field, the road will certainly be uphill.
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