Silvio Berlusconi promises today the letter to the Superior Council of the Bank of Italy with the proposal for the appointment of the new Governor. It wouldn't be the first time that the premier's words turn out to be sailor promises, but this time there are good reasons to wait for the white smoke. The reason is simple: on Sunday there is the summit of European Heads of State and Government and Berlusconi fears making a bad impression by showing up empty-handed, but above all he fears Sarkozy's grievances to whom he promised some time ago to free up a seat on the board of the ECB to make room for a Frenchman in exchange for the support, already received, for the rise of Mario Draghi to the presidency of the central bank. This is why the whispers of the last few hours indicate that, in an attempt to square the circle, Berlusconi is oriented towards indicating for the Bank of Italy Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, current member of the board of the ECB, the only candidate other than that of Vittorio Grilli that the capricious minister Tremonti could accept without having to resign.
Put in these terms, it is immediately clear that the appointment of the top management of the Bank of Italy takes place, after four months of harmful postponements, on an inclined plane, because the rationale that dominates the whole operation is not the choice of the candidate who best and more than others, the institution of Via Nazionale may serve but the settlement of matches that have nothing to do with the future of our central bank. Sorry to say it but, with his evident incompetence and insensitivity on the matter, the premier is treating the Bank of Italy like Rai and is deciding on a very delicate appointment like that of Draghi's successor as a story of ordinary subdivision between a Tg and a network anyone. The series of errors of method and merit is incredible.
There is a basic question that the Government is trying to get around but which, ignoring or underestimating it, risks exploding in the short term: why not reward the team that has collaborated very well with a highly successful Governor like Draghi by choosing his successor under the banner of continuity, i.e. in the top management team already present in Via Nazionale? What is at stake here is not the value of individual candidates external to the leadership of the Bank of Italy, but the logic of the institution's continuity and independence, especially at a time when the future number one of our central bank will find himself speaking every day with Mario Draghi at the head of the ECB. Not understanding this crucial aspect means not understanding that a useless mortification by the Bank of Italy risks causing rapid resignations and the drain of the best brains of Via Nazionale.
But, in addition to the method, there is a question of substance. No one doubts Bini Smaghi's individual abilities even if they are not comparable to the proof of independence from everything and everyone that Fabrizio Saccomanni has given over many years, the current general manager of the Bank of Italy who would be Draghi's natural successor and who by chance he was marginalized by Antonio Fazio, and even less by the great credibility and international experience that Saccomanni himself can boast. But – as Sarkozy was the first to certainly remember and as all Italians who have straight backs remember – Bini Smaghi is also that central banker who before the summer publicly put his personal interests before the general ones of the country and who threatened to pro-Draghi international agreements by not resigning from the board of the ECB if he had not been rewarded with an important public office. Not even the expiring presidency of the Antitrust seemed adequate to him.
No one would have been scandalized if the prime minister had taken the initiative in time, promoting, as it should be, Saccomanni as the new Governor and suggesting Bini Smaghi as the new general manager of the Bank of Italy in place of Saccomanni himself. It would have been an acceptable compromise. What, on the other hand, is the signal that the Government and above all Berlusconi would give to the country and above all to young people by proposing the appointment of Bini Smaghi at the helm of Via Nazionale? That you want to reward the crafty in the face of independence and meritocracy. But the Bank of Italy is not Rai. If you remember, Knight.
