Draghi is the problem, not the solution

Philipp Heimberger, Nikolaus Kowall – Draghi Government: Seven ‘Surprising’ Facts about Italy

Italy – heavily in debt and still unwilling to reform! Over recent weeks, countless articles have again been written about our EU partner country that struck such a tone. In fact, we were rarely able to read anything positive about Italy in the media over the last year. First, the negative health effects of coronavirus hit the country particularly hard during the first phase of the pandemic. Then came the severe economic crisis with discussions about European response packages, during which journalists as well as leading politicians of the self-proclaimed “frugal four” repeatedly questioned whether Italy should really receive grants to a considerable extent to mitigate the consequences of the COVID19 crisis. And then Guiseppe Conte’s government had to step down after former Prime Minister Renzi removed his party’s two ministers from the government, leading to intense discussions about a political crisis in Italy.
Now there is a new Italian government under prime minister Mario Draghi, the former ECB president. This government will not only have to deal with the pandemic, but also with planning the use of around €200 billion from the EU recovery fund for the coming years. In view of these important political projects, it is high time to take a fact-based look at Italy and, in doing so, also dispel some myths that unfortunately continue to be spread regularly by journalists and media.
Continue reading at braveneweurope.com

Italy’s “National Unity” Government Is the Cutting Edge of Post-Democratic Governance

Never elected to any public office, the new prime minister was keen to assure ordinary Italians he had their interests at heart. A former European Commission official, he insisted his aim was to rebuild trust between citizens and their institutions — and overcome the troubling social breakdown driven by soaring unemployment.
Ahead of his first confidence vote in the Senate, the new premier promised to raise Italy out of the crisis by cleaning up the public finances, fighting tax evasion, ensuring social cohesion, and returning the economy to sustainable growth. The media near-unanimously praised the technocrat for saving Italy from the mess left by a bankrupt political class: amidst such adulation, it was no surprise he began his premiership with 84 percent public approval ratings.
This all happened in fall 2011, when former Goldman Sachs advisor Mario Monti became Italian prime minister. His now-infamous government went on to introduce eye-watering austerity which pushed up unemployment and presided over a 3 percent fall in GDP. Such was this “providential” figure’s collapse, that when Monti ran in the general election fifteen months after his appointment, only one in ten voters backed his party.
Continue reading at www.jacobinmag.com
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