The Knight attacks with a throw and the Professor responds. Interviewed by Maurizio Belpietro, Silvio Berlusconi he launches the slogans of the electoral campaign, which has in fact already begun. Two warhorses. The first is already a classic: “But what do we care about the spread? Let's stop talking about this scam: what do we care about the interest on our bonds compared to those on German bunds?“. The second, however, is the real novelty of the last few days: “The economy under Monti has only gotten worse compared to when we were in government".
Guest of One Morning, Mario Monti replies almost in real time: “We have to be careful and brush away some myths, such as the one according to which what a country does does not affect its spread because the ECB intervenes". It's still: "I hope that in this too citizens are not treated as more clueless than they are".
The Premier also defends the work of his government, emphasizing the responsibilities of the previous administrations: “Thirteen months ago Italy found itself in very very difficult financial conditions – recalls the Professor -. Today, if we look at the reports of the Commission and other institutions, we can say that we have been promoted. The cost has been the lack of growth, but I ask how it would have been possible to save Italy from a Greek fate and make it grow: this recipe had to be found a few years earlier, when there was no saving".
On Monti's side is the Vice-President of the European Commission, Olli Rehn, who in an article in the Financial Times recalls how Italy recently managed to "place 10-year government bonds at the lowest interest rates since 2010. This was clear recognition of the determination shown by Mario Monti's government to relaunch competitiveness and restore public finances. AND government bond yields rising again after Monti's decision to resign are also a sign of the need to maintain this determination in the future".
Thus we come to the hottest topic, the elections. Berlusconi states that “they were brought forward only because of the early resignation of Monti“, which however – in turn – came later the abstention of the Pdl from the last votes of confidence and especially after speech in the House pronounced last Friday by the secretary Angelino Alfano. In any case, the Knight believes that all this has nothing to do with the recent rise in the differential: “The early elections are a laughable reason. It's just over a month, there's no real reason”.
On the other hand, according to Monti during the electoral campaign "there is a tendency to present magical solutions to citizens, to follow their instincts and not to propose a program for the future". An attempt is made to "oversimplify things" and "promise what cannot be kept", to indulge the "gut instincts" of citizens. The risk of populism "is present in almost all European countries, and in Italy there is alternating current".
Meanwhile, a tough stance is coming from the international front. For Joseph Daul, group leader of the European People's Party in the Strasbourg Parliament, "it was a grave mistake to bring down the Monti government". The EPP is therefore "very worried: for the euro and for the economy, we cannot afford a spectacular policy, we need a rigorous policy".
