As of: 09/22/2021 3:09 a.m.
As the last hope, Italy’s Prime Minister Draghi was brought into office in February – and he succeeded in what seemed unthinkable for a long time: the economy and the vaccination campaign are picking up, party-political chaos has a break.
Neon lights, metal bookcases, heavy black curtains. The uninviting ambience of the main auditorium of the Bologna Business School is the setting for one of Mario Draghi’s still rare public appearances. Italy’s head of government is invited to speak about the late Christian Democratic politician Beniamino Andreatta, a friend from university days together. Draghi talks about civic duty, about social responsibility.
When he describes the style that his friend used as a politician, many in the room notice that Draghi is actually talking about Draghi. “He did not hesitate to make the necessary decisions, even if they were unpopular,” he says. “Things are done because they have to be done.” Draghi’s self-image, in which the “Whatever it takes” mantra from his time as head of the European central bank shines through.
Savior in a pandemic emergency
In the corona pandemic, Draghi Italy initially ordered another partial lockdown. Now he makes a corona vaccination or test certificate, the so-called Greenpass, compulsory at the workplace. Unique in Europe, but essential for Draghi to help Italy get back on its feet economically.
Leading Italy out of the pandemic and economic depression was Draghi’s mission when he was called to Palazzo Chigi in February as a savior in need. Now, seven months later, the vaccination campaign is going faster in Italy than in Germany, the economy is growing faster than in the rest of Europe, Italy’s mechanical engineering industry is producing almost twice as much as last year and almost half of all companies want to ramp up their investments.
Amazing stability comes in
A “new Italian miracle”? The big newspapers put a question mark behind this formulation, but the mood in Draghi Land is optimistic. With his calm and consistent style of government, the 74-year-old is in the process of leading Italy out of the crisis. Politics professor Giovanni Orsina from the University of Luiss in Rome also praises the Prime Minister. He stands out from the long line of his predecessors in office: “Very great skills, a remarkable ability to use power and a high international standing. That is an almost unique figure when we compare him with the prime ministers of recent years,” agrees him Orsina too.
The majority of Italians obviously share the impression that someone is tackling something and keeping what he promises. In surveys, over two thirds of the people in the country say they have confidence in their prime minister.
Effectiveness in the vaccination campaign, economic boom: Italy under Draghi is characterized by astonishing political stability. Despite some unpopular measures, the parties keep quiet, the occasionally grumbling right-wing League is always quickly brought into line by the head of government.
Came to stay?
Orsina explains that Draghi is still benefiting from the fact that he was brought in as a last hope in February – in a situation in which Italy’s parties were unable to agree on a new government in the middle of the corona pandemic: “Italian politics is in a situation of great weakness. The parties have entrusted the solution of an exceptional situation to an outside person who now has great freedom of action for several months. ”
Orsina does not want to rule out that Draghi has come to stay – “either as President of the Republic or in some other capacity”. Internationally, he is highly valued, in Europe he would almost inevitably assume a leading role in view of the upcoming change in Germany and possibly in France. And Italy itself needs Draghi to keep the markets calm in view of its high debt.
In the face of speculation about his future, Draghi himself does what he always does in such cases: He is silent about it in public.