Mes, when will the Italian comedy end? When Meloni and Salvini get rid of their populist ghosts

If the reputation of theItaly in Europe, in the world and on the financial markets, the squabbles between wives – as Giovanni ironically called them swordsmen in his time – of Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini they would only make you smile. But also very indignant. Because everyone has already understood very well two things: 1) that the refusal to sign the Month – not to use it, which is not in the slightest question – has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the defense of the national interest. Indeed the very recent technical document of the Mef demonstrates the exact opposite and that is that the ratification of the mef it would strengthen Italy's credibility on the markets, improve our rating and allow us to finance our debt on more favorable terms and reduce the Btp-Bund spread; 2) that sooner or later Italy will ratify, obtorto collo, the reform of the Mes while swearing and perjuring that it will never use it. On this point the bookmakers are betting that the signing, barring accidents along the way, will take place no later than September.

Mes: after the electoral propaganda Meloni and Salvini don't know how to deal with reality

But then, if this is the case, what does it take to end it all and subscribe to the hated and yet very useful Mes? Hated because in the last national electoral campaign both Meloni and Salvini caressed the anti-European wind in every way in search of a few more votes and in this populist and sovereign narrative of the Mes they said plague and horns. They made the Italians believe that by joining the Mes we would bring the Troika into the house and end up like Greece: pure shamelessness and bunches of lies. Then, once they arrived at the government, both Meloni and Salvini - but more the premier than the leader of the League - realized that their anti-MES attitudes were pure "populist nonsense", as the Renziano economist Luigi calls them Marattin and which in any case were not politically sustainable in Europe. A country is perfectly free not to use ESM funds, which are used to deal with any systemic banking crises (as Spain did successfully) which we hope will never happen in Italy, but what it cannot do is prevent Europe from equipping itself of the Mes that the other 26 EU partners have already approved in their respective national Parliaments. This is unsustainable and this strikes at the heart of the credibility of a country that cannot play with fire with its high public debt. Meloni understood it very well and perhaps even that genius of planetary politics who the whole world envies us and who is called Matteo Salvini but who would also sell her mother for a handful of votes more understood it. And in fact Salvini is speculating on Meloni's difficulties, bypassing her on the right to recover the votes lost in those who believe in the fairy tale of stepmother Europe. There are no words instead for the somersaults of Antonio Tajani who, to keep Meloni and Salvini on board, forget that it was really the last government Berlusconi to start the Month. As for Giuseppe Conte, opportunism is his only compass and it is not surprising that the enthusiasm with which the grillini toasted the reform of the Mes in 2020 today is replaced by the announcement of their parliamentary rejection: some call it schizophrenia politics but it is a film already seen many times.

Mes, Meloni and Salvini have not yet found a presentable narrative to justify theirs reverse gear

But the two right-center government leaders, actually more Meloni than Salvini, have a problem: pure image. How to reverse the hoaxes they told during the electoral campaign by now making the country accept membership of the Mes without losing face? So far, the only shred of tactics that Meloni has been able to invent is that of stalling and dealing with the Ue on the new Stability Pact and on the Pnrr hoping to obtain some concessions which, in the eyes of the Italians (but which ones if not the fake ones?) hide the capitulation on the Mes. Capitulation which cannot fail to take place, on pain of political isolation in Europe on which the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella would definitely have something to say. The finale of the Italian comedy has already been written, it's only a matter of time and, presumably in September, the curtain will fall on the pathetic diatribe over the Mes. Which does not exclude a bumpy ride and maybe some parliamentary incidents. If then all this absurd story will arouse in Meloni suggestive reflections on the future and on the unreliability of the Papeete man, we will understand later.