Immediately "more effective and credible" measures. This is the meaning and the letter of the appeal addressed to our policy by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, at the end of a day which saw the clear rejection by the markets of thelast draft of the manoeuvre set up by the Government.
Everything happened: the spread with German bonds rose again above 370 points, despite the support of the ECB; Trichet and above all Draghi have made it clear that that support will not be eternal. And in the meantime, Merkel did not hesitate to associate Italy's fragility with that of Greece. Will the appeal of the head of state be enough to reverse a situation that defining unfavorable is just a euphemism? It will depend on how the recipients of the appeal behave.
The maneuver (but with what measures?) can be approved by the Senate by Saturday: the opposition has already made it known that it is ready to reduce its amendments to a minimum. But availability on the method corresponds to a similar firmness on the contents, which is why the vote against is also taken for granted by the centrist area. As for the majority, the latest news confirms that Tremonti's attempt to convince Bossi and the League to be more willing to intervene on the pension system has not been successful.
And then there is also to be reckoned with the general strike of the CGIL which has organized demonstrations in many Italian squares for today. Then there is a more general problem of the credibility of the Government, of its economic policy and of the Prime Minister. Credibility towards the country, but as we have seen also towards international markets. Because one can also say, as the secretary of the Pdl Alfano did with an excess of nonchalance, that politics must not be made by the markets, but it is equally true that a country indebted to those markets like ours must give an account if it wants they support our government bonds.
In short, the credibility problem could not only concern the contents of the maneuver, but also who will first have to get those contents approved and then implemented. In recent days there has been much talk (in Rome, Brussels and Cernobbio) of the hypothesis of a government of national unity with all the major national political forces and presided over by a high-profile institutional figure. It would (yes) be a strong signal of national credibility to the markets and beyond. But the PDL, which also has a new secretary and in which there is no shortage of those who position themselves in view of the after Berlusconi, continues to rally around the prime minister.
A premier who 17 years ago had explained his descent into the field as a service to the country. Even if to serve the country it can sometimes be just as useful to leave the field at the right time. And this too is a matter of political debate.
