The Bini Smaghi case continues to worry the Italian government. After Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's invitation to resign, the head of the Farnesina, Franco Frattini, also encouraged Lorenzo Bini Smaghi to leave the board in Frankfurt. On 24 June the European Council will give the green light to Mario Draghi, current governor of the Bank of Italy, to succeed the Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet at the top of the European Central Bank. One last obstacle remains: an unwritten agreement between European governments requires that the eight members of the ECB directorate are each from a different country. Italy already has Bini Smaghi and, to make way for Draghi, the Florentine banker would have to resign. Despite pressure from the Italian, French and German governments, Bini Smaghi is still in his place, who would only give way to succeed Draghi at the helm of via Nazionale.
In particular, it is France that is disturbed by the banker's obstinacy. Paris does not want to be cut off from Frankfurt's control room with Trichet's departure from the scene and demands that Bini Smaghi leave in order to be replaced by a Frenchman. The appeal of the Italian government has so far been of no avail, recalling the precedent of 2003 with the Banque de France – ECB relay between Christian Noyer and Trichet. It remains difficult to understand the strategy played by Bini Smaghi. A post in the directorate of via Nazionale is probably guaranteed to him, which would open up the possibility of becoming governor in a few years. But the match around Palazzo Koch already seems marked by two opposing factions: the line of the external option, more politicized, appreciated by Tremonti and that of internal succession, dear to the liberal establishment. For both sides, Bini Smaghi is not the candidate at the top of the list.
