A Venetian. But abnormal. Because he is a great worker. But he is silent. Not out of shyness, but out of reserve, another rare quality in the gossipy North-East.
On the other hand, Daniele Franco, born in 1953, new Minister of Economy of the Draghi government, is a mountaineer from Belluno, a province that boasts beautiful Dolomite peaks (Pelmo, Civetta, Tofane, Cristallo, Marmolada) and no plains; not even that esplanade by the Piave between Ponte nelle Alpi and Feltre, before Montello, is really such. That is, up there the "you will earn your bread in the sweat of your brow" translates into little bread and a lot of sweat.
Serious, a lot. And attentive observer and listener. But don't think he's a serious person. The smile is very frequent (laughter is much rarer), and it is bright. In his youth he was a fan of Pitura Freska, a historic Venetian reggae band.
- Schei they mean a lot to him. Not for the value they usually have in the private sphere as a symbol of power and success, social lift and redemption, to show off with luxury villas and cars. But as a public good, to be used with care, so as to avoid always paying Pantalone in the end. Ergo the State with the debt. (Shit=money, derived from the writing scheide münze, small change, on the Austrian coins in circulation in the fifty years of the nineteenth century Lombardy-Venetia).
He has so much respect for taxpayers' money that, when we go out for coffee or lunch together, he always pays from his own pocket and never uses the credit card that the offices have provided him with, even though they are still business meetings, even if enriched with friendship, esteem, affection.
On the other hand, you cannot expect less from a central banker, i.e. from a vestal of money. However, Franco in his long militancy in the Bank of Italy which began 42 years ago, has dealt little with monetary policy, but a lot with public finance. Thus embodying that close and inevitable link between monetary governance and health and the use of the state budget, a link that we well observe at work in these tragic pandemic times (with central banks financing public deficits created in support of the economy).
This long career, which culminated not even a year ago with the position of Director General (i.e. one step just below the Governor), has had two long parentheses, both crucial for the new public role he will now hold. The first to the European Commission, in 1994-97, as economic adviser in the Affairs and Finance Directorate, the one that deals with the surveillance of the state accounts of the member countries, as well as with the performance of the economy.
The second as State General Accountant, in 2013-2020, thus passing to the other side, that of those who must examine and stamp (certifying their financial coverage) the measures passed by the government and the laws of Parliament.
A delicate and sensitive function, politically and institutionally, also for the Quirinale, which those measures and laws must sign before publication in the Official Gazette. A function that allowed him to get to know the machine, the personnel and the mechanisms of via XX Settembre, the historic headquarters of the Ministry that he will lead from today. In a reversal of roles, from central banker to Treasury Minister, which is very similar to what happened in the USA with Janet Yellen, former President of the FED and recently become Secretary of the Treasury of the Biden administration.
Being in the position of General Reason also put him in close contact with politics, as a point of reference for all ministers and parliamentarians. And to get a very precise idea of the human side of his interlocutors, learning who to trust and who not.
Franco performed this function not in an accountancy way, but as an economist attentive to Italy's structural problems: education, infrastructure, bureaucracy, taxation, the health system, territorial inequality. Not limiting itself to the passive role of auditing the proposals of its institutional interlocutors, but advancing its own, with grace and aplomb. Who do not betray the passion for his work and for the sense of collective well-being.
Strengthened by that experience, in which he experienced the difficulty of translating the allocated funds into works (roads, bridges, ports, schools), today Daniele admires with different eyes the Roman civil buildings he encounters during his Sunday walks around Rome . Eyes full of admiration even for the millimeter precision, without the aid of the tools we have today. Like the tunnel dug between 42 and 51 after Christ to drain the lake of Fucino.
Franco continues a long line of Treasury Ministers of the Bank of Italy type in particular moments in the life of the Republic: Guido Carli in 1989-91, Lamberto Dini in 1994, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 1996-97, Tommaso Padoa-Shioppa in 2006- 08 and Fabrizio Saccomanni in 2013-14. But of this extraordinary team he is the only one who arrives so prepared for this mission and sits at Quintino Sella's desk.
To use European funds he is obliged to do well, better than his illustrious predecessors. And there is no doubt that it will succeed. Without even a great effort, because more than his work it is his vocation. Like Maradona in soccer and Kobe Bryant in basketball. We are already grateful to him.
