Bean drop. Indeed, a month in advance, passed almost unnoticed then, but more than current today. In the aftermath of the criticisms received from Germany of the Italian premier Mario Monti, the Wall Street Journal dusts off an interview given by the Prime Minister about thirty days ago, and re-launches its support for the work of his caretaker government: "The italian job: Premier Talks Tough to Save Euro": "Italy's task: the premier speaks tough in an attempt to save the euro", explains the US financial newspaper which today devotes two pages to Monti.
“His disciplined nature is more German than Italian”, continues the WSJ taking a stand in favor of the prime minister in the dispute with Germany after the interview with Der Spiegel, while his sense of humor "is decidedly more British". With the same sense of humour, Monti had probably used particularly strong tones during the interview with the same WSJ a month ago: “If the previous government were still in office, the Italian spread would now be at 1200 or something similar”.
Monti had also added: “I hope my government can help Italians change their mentality. This does not mean - he added - that I want to replace the Italian mentality with that of the Germans. But there are some aspects of Italian behavior, such as solidarity pushed to the level of collusion, which are at the root of things like tax evasion, which my government is fighting with unprecedented commitment and tools.
In addition to certain habits of political life: “I have always thought that the practice of concertation has been followed too extensively in the past. Concertation is like toothpaste, if you don't put the cork it will come out”, Monti ironically underlined, however recalling: “I know that talking to the parties, as I do even if not too often, is considered by many as a 'contamination'. But I think we have learned our lesson. Look, inviting the heads of political parties to business dinners is something that President Obama, for example, does all the time. And there are people who think that the Italian parties are in such bad shape that they wouldn't fail us in Parliament. But I'm not so convinced because the result of a parliamentary vote, under certain circumstances, can be unpredictable. So if the measures were rejected, what would happen the next day? Would it be responsible of me to allow this? It would be like putting my personal pride in not talking to the parties before national interests".
“My aspiration is not to be loved. But that my government is respected and credible. My job – the premier had still explained – is transform my popularity, which was initially around 72% and is now around 40%, into unpopularity through the necessary measures. Someone says that I did less on liberalizations because I didn't want to be hated by pharmacists, but that's not true – Monti points out -. I just calculated what was the minimum consensus needed among the political parties for the laws to pass".
Monti's harsh words, in particular the dig at the previous government on the spread, immediately triggered reactions from the political world. In particular that of the majority party, the PDL, which attacked the premier through the group leader in the Chamber Fabrizio Cicchitto thus: "We have the impression that President Monti should have greater sobriety in his interviews with foreign newspapers, yesterday in 'Der Spiegel' and today (actually a month ago, ed) in the 'Wall Street Journal'. We understand that he may find it unwelcome that the ups and downs in spreads are also happening during his government and that this may have made him nervous, but this does not justify a provocation as useless as it is stupid which we send back to the sender, including the justifications of Palazzo Chigi. We believe that the moment is so serious that these unacceptable and gratuitous polemical exercises against those who are loyally supporting his government are not allowed".
Cicchitto's statements then led Monti to issue a reconciliatory press release: "The Prime Minister, Mario Monti, as he clarified in a telephone conversation with President Silvio Berlusconi, is sorry that a trivial and abstract trend extrapolation of spread values, which was contained in a wide-ranging conversation with the WSJ, was taken as a consideration of a political nature, which was not at all part of his intentions”, reads a clarification released by Palazzo Chigi, a few minutes after the tough position also taken by the secretary of the PDL, Angelino Alfano who had defined Monti's words as unacceptable and had invited the Prime Minister to explain himself "if he can" as soon as possible.
Read the interview on wsj
