The news is not so much the presence of Alexis Tsipras, whose debut at the Ambrosetti workshop in Cernobbio, rigorously without a tie, caused a sensation at least as much as that of Gianroberto Casaleggio the year before. “I think it's a good evolution that they invited me here to hear a different voice. Perhaps they will understand that something is not going the right way in Europe”, proudly says the leader of Syriza, the left-wing coalition that won the top party in Greece in the last European elections.
The real news is that after a first day of the Ambrosetti workshop full of praise for Mario Draghi first but also for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (albeit with many "ifs" and "buts"), this time the former mayor of Florence, great absent from the meeting of the big names on Lake Como – to which he preferred a visit to the new factory of the Brescia-based Bonomi taps and fittings – he ends up caught in the crossfire of two worlds that couldn't be more opposite: that of the European establishment, represented by the ex premier Mario Monti, and precisely that of the young Greek politician, who fearlessly faces one of his first official confrontations with the financial universe.
The strange alliance, the one between Monti and Tsipras. It was precisely the Italian life senator, often accused of having played into the hands of the so-called "Europe of the banks" during his mandate, who invited Tsipras, leader of a left which, apart from Greece, is struggling to resurrect itself in Europe. The two speak in the same panel, the one dedicated to the "Balance of power in the new Europe", and even find some unpredictable convergences: "Monti was right when he hoped that the recapitalization of banks through EU aid would take place with the ESM, without being accounted for in the public debt”, says the young Greek, after having also said – to be honest – that “liberal politics has failed: few have gotten rich off the backs of many, it is time to go back to a true left-wing politics, which deal with social emergencies. "Tsipras was one of the first Greek politicians to admit that corruption is one of the main problems of his country", acknowledges Monti, who will certainly not have shared the aut aut on the single currency launched by the leader of Syriza: "O the euro changes, or dies. Austerity was a trap, and now this trap is called deflation”.
But if there is one topic on which Monti and Tsipras agree in full, it is Renzi. After all, shortly before the debate between the two, the outgoing president of the EU commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, had thought about opening the ball, taking care to clarify the merits of the predecessors of the current Italian prime minister: "I want to pay tribute to Mario Monti and Enrico Letta. Thanks to the reforms they have launched, Italy has managed to get out of the grip of the markets”. An eloquent stance, while even before leaving for Cernobbio Monti had already thrown down his personal gauntlet. First defending his work: “In a few days my government put in place pension and taxation reforms, effectively introducing a property tax. Concrete reforms, not slides. But if the government is up to it, he is sent home”. Then, sending the umpteenth jab to the current Prime Minister: "I would not have chosen the reimbursement of the 80 euros as an important measure".
And Tsipras' contribution, which also receives the applause of Romano Prodi ("If Monti hadn't invited him, I would have done it: if we don't discuss these meetings are useless"), was not long in coming: "To me those like Renzi they are scary: they talk about growth, but they haven't found the way yet. They ask for time, but it's not the time you need, it's the strategy. In these times it is essential that a real left-wing policy returns, and Renzi, who needs time anyway, is not left enough". Tsipras' solutions are known, but reiterating them in the face of the finance elite is not so obvious. First of all, on growth: “You don't need time, I repeat, but solutions. In my opinion there are mainly two: that public investments are not counted as public expenditure in the calculation of the deficit, and that the ECB and the EIB take joint action to finance the real economy of peripheral countries”.
Like his Greece, for which he claims a review of recent history: "The Greek public debt should be cut, as indeed it was done in favor of Germany in 1953". Germany then emerged devastated by the war, "while we have lost 25% of GDP in times of peace: there is obviously something not working". Tsipras also has problems with European policy on the fronts of international tension, starting with Russia: "The EU cannot afford an embargo on Russia: the Europe I have in mind unites peoples, not divides them".
