After inaugurating the Italian semester of European presidency and missing the press conference in Strasbourg with journalists from all over the continent, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi landed directly in Bruno Vespa's living room yesterday evening. "Italy will live the semester with courage and pride - he said -, enough of the little lessons: we respect the rules, we don't go too far, but we don't go hat in hand".
From Europe, however, comes a crossfire. The new group leader of the EPP, the German Manfred Weber (of the CDU, the same party as chancellor Angela Merkel), railed against the flexibility requested by Renzi, stating that "debts do not create the future, they destroy it", therefore "we must continue ” on the line of rigor, also because “Italy has 130% of public debt… Where do you get the money?”.
From Porta a Porta, the Prime Minister replied that “Italy does not accept moral lessons. It is true that we have a very high debt, but it is also true that we have four times as much private wealth. We will be happy to make our semester an occasion for discussion, but whoever wields the weapon of prejudice against Italy is wrong, it is an attitude to be rejected to the sender”.
As for flexibility, “if Weber spoke on behalf of Germany – he added -, I remind him that during the last Italian presidency there was a country which was not only granted flexibility, but also allowed to violate the limits and be today a growing country. This country was Germany. It's not Italy and France that are asking for different rules of the game, they're fine with us”.
With these last words, Renzi also responded indirectly to the Dutch premier Mark Rutte, who yesterday revealed how during the last EU summit Holland and Germany stopped the attempt by France and Italy to soften the fiscal rules of the Fiscal Compact, which in fact was then reconfirmed in all its parts.
