Opinion

Renzi overturns government and Mattarella entrusts Mario Draghi with the formation of a constitutional government

photo_camera Sergio Mattarella Mario Draghi

After two months of tug-of-war between the members of the coalition governing the country since September 2019, and given the fact that they were unable to agree on a government programme with which to reach the end of the legislature, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, has made use of his constitutional prerogatives and decided that there will be no "Conte terzo", but "Governo Draghi". The prestigious banker and former governor of the Bank of Italy and the European Central Bank (ECB) has given his "yes" to the head of state in view of the critical situation and now it is time to form a government and, once a majority has been achieved in both chambers of parliament, to set in motion the 67th executive in the history of the First Italian Republic. 

Let's take it one step at a time. This government has been possible because Matteo Renzi has done everything possible to defeat the "exploratory mandate" that Roberto Fico, president of the Lower House, had to see if there was still a "maggioranza" to form a government. The very able senator for Tuscany began with a conciliatory tone, but his tactic was as clear as it was forceful: after two months of trying to get me out of the way, either you support all my demands, or the "tratattiva" (negotiation) is over. And the other three parties, of course, did not accept Renzi's conditions, which included several key ministries, the acceptance of the conflictive MES or the signing of a written document in which Five Star, PD and LeU affirmed that they accepted whatever was agreed with the leader of Italia Viva.

In fact, this negotiation was doomed to failure because Renzi could pass one, but not two, let alone three. After witnessing how they first tried to leave him out of the so-called "Recovery fund" structure (the administration of European funds for the reconstruction of a country devastated by the coronavirus), and after seeing how they sought an alternative parliamentary group to his own ( let us remember what happened in the motion of confidence held in the third week of January) in order to get rid of him, the leader of Italia Viva and former prime minister saw in this "exploratory mandate" a unique opportunity to carry out a full-fledged "vendetta". The consequences of all this seem clear: the end of the political career of his close enemy Conte and, with him, of the party he detests (the Five Star Movement); the collapse of his former party (the Democratic Party, where, as he often recalls, they have twice waged "internal war" against him despite his being the clear winner of the party primaries); and, what about him? In his case, he simply had little or nothing to lose: with a party that was sinking in the polls, and which would have remained so if he had continued to support a centre-left government, the only thing that awaited him was the near extinction of Italia Viva in the parliamentary elections.

In this sense, Renzi will now have the opportunity to move definitively towards where he has always wanted to be: in the pro-European centre-right, which is where his government has traditionally been best received. So it will come as no surprise that, when the time comes to run in new elections, his parliamentarians (almost fifty between the two chambers) will be included on the lists of a broad coalition and many of them will be able to revalidate their seats. Because, after the collapse of this coalition, it is clear that, beyond the place occupied by Salvini's anti-European League and the classical right led by the Roman Meloni, a very broad electoral space will appear that Renzi will do everything possible to occupy. And, who knows, if Draghi's management is successful, he will be able to remember at all times that it was he, and he alone, who had been asking for two months for Draghi to become the new president of the Council of Ministers. Whether it will serve him well or not, but, as we say, Renzi knew that with his veto of the coalition he had been part of he had very little to lose, while Five Star and PD will be in a very bad situation. 

Mattarella shared Renzi's view that the funds that the European Union had decided to allocate to his country (209 billion out of a total of 750 billion) were a unique opportunity. So from the outset it was clear to him that this was not the time to go to early elections (as both Salvini and Meloni were calling for), but rather to appoint a government of the highest level (as Mattarella himself called it in last Tuesday's address) that could do an important job of relaunching the national economy with more than two years to go, which is what remains until the end of the current legislature.

The only thing missing for the President of the Republic was Draghi's "yes", who actually wanted to be head of state and not head of government, but now he has it. In the coming days we will find out the composition of his government, but it seems that the best will want to be with the best, which is none other than Draghi. As for parliamentary support, in one way or another he will have all the parties that make up the current arch, except, of course, for Five Star, which will throw the umpteenth tantrum because it has been left without the only thing it had, which was the Presidency of the Executive. 

With Draghi's arrival, the country is witnessing the fourth non-political government in three decades: first Ciampi (1993-94), then Dini (1995-96) and, finally, Mario Monti (2011-13). However, the three previous governments were not the same: Ciampi's government did have political input, while neither Dini nor Monti did. And it seems that Draghi will do the same as the latter two: he has a surplus of politicians, whom he knows very well from his time as governor of the Bank of Italy. What is clear is that the country is the winner, as it has won the "yes" of the most coveted, its most renowned man in the world of finance and international institutions. And the task ahead of him is more than complicated, but Draghi is Draghi, and both Mattarella and Renzi, as well as many of their fellow citizens, know this very well. 

Pablo Martín de Santa Olalla Saludes is a professor at the ESERP Centre and author of the book 'Italia, 2013-2018. From chaos to hope' (Líber Factory, 2018).