The wind of Europe blows on Lake Como. Although the 45th edition of the Ambrosetti Forum, the traditional post-holiday meeting place of the Italian and international ruling class, was "crippled" by the absence of representatives of the new Italian government and the new EU Commission which has yet to reveal itself, one thing was certain: the "elites" took back their scene, stealing it from sovereignty or national populism, if you prefer, which only until a few weeks ago monopolized Italian politics but not only.
And so at Villa d'Este in Cernobbio we return to look with confidence and optimism to the Europe to come, and to Italy's role in the world: precisely anchored in Brussels and oriented towards the Atlantic, after the Russian-Chinese drifts of the previous executive. Europe yes, but by changing the Stability Pact, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella immediately put the cards on the table, with a non-ritual message to the Forum.
"Funny", this is how Matteo Salvini defined the guest star of this edition, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who enlivened Saturday with a much-awaited speech. Perhaps the most awaited, given the package on the same day by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. "Here in Italy, a government has just been born that has left out one of the most entertaining political figures," Donald Trump's challenger literally said in the last presidential elections.
Just Trump, as well as Boris Johnson i.e. the greatest exponents of those sovereignties that still exist but seem to be less and less fashionable, were rejected by the "televoting" of the participants of the Forum: entrepreneurs, bankers, managers all defined their experiences as very negative, as could be expected .
The results of other polls are less predictable: although the Ambrosian elites certainly welcome the new government, it still does not fully convince Prime Minister Conte, who made his absolute debut at Villa d'Este last year. For 23,7% of entrepreneurs the work of the Prime Minister does not reach enough and gets a 5 on the report card, but for 14,7% of the audience the judgment is even very negative, while the most enthusiastic about Conte are just 2,6% of those present.
A result in contrast with that of the real country, where the prime minister is considered the real anti-Salvini with less caution. Instead, he is also awarded by the Forum former Greek president Alexis Tsipras: on the bailout policy and in particular on that of Greece, the opinion before Tsipras' intervention was very negative (16,7%), while after his speech this percentage dropped to 10%.
Returning to Salvini, the former premier also expressed his opinion in a panel in the morning Romano Prodi, with a more serious judgment than the irony opposed by Hillary Clinton: “Finally an executive that will have serious relations with Europe – said the former Italian prime minister and former president of the European Commission -. I hope we will have a higher weight. I received many calls from European friends and from them there was a sense of relief. I was happy to see the visible reactions, such as the decrease in the spread, which is now helping Italy and I hope it remains stable. This means that the markets perceive that there are fewer risks”.
A little' the guests of the Ambrosetti Forum were less optimistic: according to only 3,6% of them, the risk of a populist drift in Europe is "very low", while 14% even consider it "high". And 52,4% of participants believe Trump's re-election is certain. Optimism comes from Cernobbio, but without letting our guard down.
