Italy has "a huge job to do". Restarting growth means putting in place "structural reforms” which cancel “every privilege”, overcoming the obstructionism of those who “protect their electoral district”. This is the message launched yesterday by Mario Monti on the sidelines of a conference in Berlin. The statements were reported today by the Financial Times. The new senator for life - indicated by the majority of Italian political forces as the next head of a new caretaker government - believes that the measures requested by Brussels in Rome are "what every country should be asked for greater growth".
A goal that must be achieved not through "further loans", but with "the removal of obstacles to growth itself“. And there shouldn't be "many intellectual differences" on this point. Monti then liquidates the arguments of those who attribute the responsibility for the crisis to the weakness of the single currency. “If Italy hadn't been part of the euro – underlines the Bocconi economist – there would be more inflation, less disciplined policies and less respect for future generations”. Not to mention that, "politically and historically, Italy cannot ignore its responsibilities as a founding member state of the EU".
It should therefore be "more rigorous, more constant over time, less short-term and more patient“. The Italians should try to be more involved in the Franco-German European partnership, because "it would be in the common interest". Perhaps it is not enough to speak of a real government program, however the mere possibility that Monti could lead a new emergency executive has eased the pressure of the markets on our government bonds. Proof of this - in financial terms - is the sharp drop recorded today by the spread and yields on ten-year BTPs.
MARIO MONTI – AN ATYPICAL ITALIAN
An economist on the road to politics. The idea of seeing the fate of our country entrusted to a technician makes some turn up their noses but to many it seems to be the only possible solution to get out of the abyss into which Italy is sinking. It must be admitted that Mario Monti, precisely as an expert, has precise ideas on how to save the Italian economy. And after having worked for 10 years in Brussels, for the former EU commissioner it is also a matter of honour. “Italy must not go from a founding country to a sinking country of the Euro”, he wrote in an editorial last month. And a little healthy faith in Europe and in the single currency, at a time when one is ready to find a scapegoat from everywhere, can only do good.
University graduate Bocconi in 1965, he first became its rector (1989) and then its president (2004). The Milanese one is not an institute like any other, but a university that has always set out to train a part of the Italian ruling class, which feels the fate of the country is tied to itself and which knows it has the skills and tools to change it .
From 1994 to 2004, appointed by the Berlusconi government and confirmed by the Prodi government, he worked in the Brussels offices. In 1995 he became a member of the European Commission by Jacques Santer as head of the internal market, services and financial integration and customs unit. He has been the European Commissioner for Competition since 99. It was in these years that he established himself as an icon of rigor, concerned with promoting free competition and hindering monopoly powers (he managed to inflict one of the heaviest fines on Microsoft's account: 500 million euros).
Furthermore, Monti also has extensive experience in the private sector. He is a member of the Research Advisory Council, a think-tank Goldman Sachs has always trusted. And he sits on the Advisory board of the Coca-Cola Company, as well as having held positions on the boards of directors of Fiat, Generali and Comit.
Yesterday the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano appointed him senator for life, preluding his possible leadership position in the new caretaker government, promised by Berlusconi and which could come into force this same Sunday.
Rigor, rules, stability and respect for one's commitments. In his honorable career as a coach, this is the recipe followed by Monti. And these ingredients are undeniably the qualities that Italy lacks to be able to implement the right reforms and start growing again, thus regaining its credibility in Europe.
