Come on Draghi, or rather no: down with Draghi. Roundabout of opinions
Draghi's speech analyzed by economists, political scientists, editorialists and newspaper editors
Competition, economic integration, unitary strategy and economies of scale. These are the themes around which former Prime Minister Mario Draghi built his speech which anticipates the report prepared for the President of the Commission. What Draghi is proposing is a radical change, a change that looks at the European economic space as a single economy and not as 27 economies competing with each other.
THE RESOURCE NODE IN THE DRAGONS PROGRAM
“The changes range from competition and the Single Market to international trade and foreign policy. The ambition is certainly great – writes Antonio Villafranca of ISPI -. But so are the constraints. The political will to implement the changes depends on the outcome of the European elections, while on the economic level the issue of resources (public and private) necessary to transform ambition into concrete actions must be resolved".
THE EU HAS FOLLOWED THE NON-EXISTENT PERFECT COMPETITION CONDITIONS IN A "NULL AND Stubborn" MANNER
The changes Draghi spoke about also derive from the organizational stasis of the last fifteen years in which "he continued to obtusely and obstinately pursue the "perfect" conditions of competition within himself as if Europe could be immune to the dynamics that have characterized the performance of markets on a global scale for more than two decades", writes Marco Mayer on Startmag . Our EU "is not a political actor of global relevance and we know that – in the absence of political stimuli – any techno-bureaucracy tends to automatically repeat its usual practices, completely ignoring what happens outside its borders of administrative competence ”.
MARIO DRAGHI: THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE NAME ON THE TABLE
Mario Draghi's name has never left the radar for a prestigious position in Europe, starting with the presidency of the European Commission. His eagerly awaited keynote speech only shone the light back on the former ECB president. “Discussing names too early risks damaging the candidate you would like to support,” notes Stefano Folli in Repubblica . Draghi's is "the most authoritative name on the table" but he has a problem: Draghi is a technician, or rather a "super technician" who "does not belong to one of the main "political families" in Europe". In our country "Draghi collects the explicit consent of Action (Calenda) and Italia Viva (Renzi)", Schlein's Democratic Party "is looking at a name from the PSE" while the center right has not yet expressed itself clearly. “The use of technicians, in imitation of the Italian model, does not belong to the customs of Brussels and Strasbourg – continues Folli -. But there could certainly be a first time, especially if the result of the vote was not so clear-cut. In the meantime, as we have seen, Draghi gave maximum emphasis to his report on competitiveness. In turn Enrico Letta presents his work on the single market". Both had been called by Ursula von der Leyen but since then "many things have changed".
MARIO DRAGHI: THE DEMIURGE WHO DEALS WITH CRISIS
Mario Draghi, in the words of Giuliano Cazzola who analyzes his speech for Startmag , is "the demiurge who faces crises: that of the euro, of the pandemic, of restarting at the right pace, of overcoming energy supplies which also create political dependence, without suffering collapses in the needs of the production system, support for families and businesses. We expect from him a Whatever it takes also for the defense of freedom." The attribution of the role of President of the Commission to Mario Draghi would also be good news for our country. “For once there is a name neither right nor left, and universally credited as a person of value. Draghi is our Maradona of the economy and not only that, simply great, regardless of the shirt – of Napoli or the Argentine national team in the other case – that you wear – wrote the columnist Federico Guiglia -. Leaving Maradona on the bench for a short-sighted political calculation, that is to spite Giorgia Meloni, a spite against Elly Schlein, a disgrace to Matteo Renzi, in short a provocation to this or that leader of the entire Italian political galaxy, would be crazy and masochistic ”.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SPEECHES OF ENRICO LETTA AND MARIO DRAGHI
The speeches of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta were too close and too contiguous not to spark a comparison between the two. According to Stefano Feltri ( here the thoughts of the director of Appunti collected by Ruggero Po for Startmag ) the "reports of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta contrast two ideas of Europe which, to simplify, we could call a French idea and a German idea- Italian". The first would favor "discontinuity with the past for geopolitical reasons ("radical change")", while the second "tries to adapt the existing instruments, above all the single market, to the new context but without distorting them, on the contrary, strengthening them, according to the logic of the social and market economy”. The reasons for this distance can be found, according to the communication advisor of the think tank Institute for European Policymaking of Bocconi University, in the closeness between Mario Draghi and President Emmanuel Macron, his main sponsor for a European assignment. “Between the lines of Draghi's speech there is, therefore, a detachment from what has been the antitrust culture of the European Union over the last twenty years: Brussels' approach, from the time of Mario Monti commissioner to Margrethe Vestager today , has always been to privilege the protection of the market over the promises of efficiency that always accompany merger projects – writes Feltri in Milano Finanza -. Enrico Letta instead cites the 2010 Monti report and respects the orthodoxy that sees the single market as a pillar of European construction, a preliminary requirement not only for competition and the single currency, but also for fairness and – adds Letta – for social rights". The two speeches are similar in terms of "state aid", in fact "both Draghi and Letta suggest that industrial policy should be made at European level, and not with exceptions to individual member states which then intervene in strategic sectors but to protect their own companies, rather than to increase the overall resilience of the Union". At the same time, Draghi and Letta agree “that the European Union is too far behind in the digital economy”. But if Letta recalls that the Digital Service Act and the Digital Markets Act resemble the "declination of the antitrust principles" that protect "consumers and the conditions for innovation", Mario Draghi would have "a more critical approach: the political priorities and contributions in terms of ideas and research they do not translate into innovation with commercial potential, therefore there are no European digital giants".
LA HULPE'S MESSAGE COMES FROM WASHINGTON
A suggestive interpretation of the speech by the former President of the ECB comes from prof. of Luiss Lorenzo Castellani. “Many have looked at Draghi, that is, what Mario Draghi will possibly do in the coming months at EU level, and not at the moon – wrote Castellani on X -, the message in a bottle from Washington for the allies on the near future through a loyal and credible intermediary". Moreover, it is no mystery that Mario Draghi has excellent connections in Washington. It is no coincidence that it was Mario Draghi himself who froze the Silk Road memorandum built by the yellow-green government.
Many have looked at Draghi, that is, what Mario Draghi will possibly do in the coming months at EU level, and not at the moon, the message in a bottle from Washington for the allies on the near future through a loyal and credible intermediary.
— Lorenzo Castellani (@LorenzoCast89) April 18, 2024
CONCERNS ABOUT THE WELFARE OF INDIVIDUAL STATES COULD OVERRIDE COMMUNITY THOSE
The epochal changes that our continent is experiencing are very clear to President Draghi who, right from the incipit of his speech, explains that "the European growth model has dissolved, we must reinvent ourselves". A passage that fails to marry with what Gianfranco Polillo in Formiche calls identifies as "rhetoric" which would like to make "Europe the first climate-neutral continent on the planet by 2050", as said by the President of the European Council Charles Michel. And from this consideration derive the commitments that President Draghi sets for the next few years. “Count on decarbonised and independent energy systems and an integrated EU defense system, on domestic production in the most innovative and fast-growing sectors, and on a leadership position in deep-tech and digital innovation”. Not a simple challenge, according to Polillo, "due to the prevalence of legitimate concerns of individual states, but we must have a sense of proportion" because when "the house burns there is no point in worrying about the upholstery. The priority is to put out the fire."
IN MARIO DRAGHI'S SPEECH WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE?
Mario Sechi, director of Libero , points out in his editorial that there is a great absentee in Mario Draghi's speech: the people. “Here in Italy we should be particularly sensitive and prepared on this point since 2011, when, despite fully formally respecting the Constitution, the Monti government took the place of the Berlusconi executive – recalls worried director Sechi, former spokesperson at Palazzo Chigi both of Monti and Meloni -. All absolutely legitimate, with the vote of the Chambers certifying the confidence for the new technical cabinet. Yet – from then and for many years, including an experience of government by Mario Draghi himself, until Giorgia Meloni's victory in September 2022 – an operation aimed at progressively separating the kratos, i.e. the exercise of power, was consolidated as a practice , from its necessary popular source, that is, the demos”. Director Sechi's concern is that the "commissioner subrogation of this type in Italy" will move to Brussels "bypassing voters – parties – governments in one fell swoop". A method which, according to Sechi, "presents significant critical issues".
POLITICS IS MISSING IN DRAGHI'S SPEECH
Director Sechi is not the only one to underline how Draghi's speech lacks a reference to the political and democratic process. Economist Nicola Rossi (Bruno Leoni Institute) finds that the former Prime Minister did not give the right space to Europeans with "their diversified values, their often very differentiated cultural bases". According to Rossi, the prevailing approach is that it would be enough to "correctly outline public initiatives so that individual behavior adapts to them". A belief which, according to the former president of the Institute Bruno Leoni, "has already shown its limits and which has often revealed itself for what it really is: an illusion". In essence, "the "radical change" that La Hulpe's speech talks about seems to be a change limited to the institutional sphere and its expressions, and from it applied to the European reality. Incapable of involving European society. A less radical change than would be necessary." A not very political perspective, useful "to indicate the objectives – even very ambitious ones – that an organization of states can and must set itself to be able to respond to challenges but incapable of offering a shared horizon to the relevant communities of citizens". Which, according to the prof. Rossi, "Europe is desperately in need today", we read in the Foglio .
THE PROFESSOR. FABRIZIO BARCA LISTS ALL THE GAPS IN MARIO DRAGHI'S SPEECH
However, President Draghi's speech would have quite a few shortcomings. The professor explains it. Fabrizio Barca, economist and former minister for territorial cohesion in the Monti government. “There is a dominant logic in the international context, where we insist on ignoring the fact that we have entered the Asian century, the priority of rebuilding an equal relationship with Africa is ignored, the issue of “strategic critical resources” is addressed by putting itself in the trenches. , where the real trick is to promote supply chains that do not depend on materials owned by a few and extracted with very high environmental and human costs. Rearmament is placed at the center of the relaunch of the question: the word "defence" recurs obsessively nine times, "diplomacy" not once – Barca lists -. The flag of competition is ignored and the aim is to strengthen monopolies. We treat “social” as a constraint of “economic”, not as an end”. The former Bankitalia economist on Il Fatto Quoda takes aim at two concepts expressed by Draghi. The first is "scalability" which, according to Barca, has in Draghi's approach the sole purpose of "accelerating the concentration of knowledge and production control in a few hands" rather than creating "a European infrastructure" for data control and management , including healthcare, of social interest. The second definition is "public goods" which instead of being "goods usable by the entire society without the formation of private profits" in the rhetoric of the former prime minister would translate into the "common debt capacity of the Union" to be passed on to future generations. Added to this is that "the ambitious climate agenda is cited only to say that it is right, but then, in fact, speaking of "energy-intensive industries" evokes the greater regulatory burden and lower subsidies of European companies compared to their competitors ”.
DRAGHI'S SPEECH OPENS TO A EUROPEAN UNION DIRECTED TOWARDS A MILITARY ALLIANCE
Prof. is noticeably more critical. Alessandro Mangia, professor of constitutional law at the Catholic University of Milan, who, in the Sussidiario , recalled Mario Draghi's many past positions "including those of Britannia and the piloted sell-off of IRI on the basis of the Andreatta-Van Miert Pact" . But not only. “Draghi is one of the people most responsible for the deflationary policies that have destroyed well-being and the social state since the times of Greece – adds the professor. Eats -. Now he says what all common-sense people knew, namely that pro-cyclical policies in times of crisis fuel the crisis." In the analysis of the prof. Eat the words of President Draghi would be aimed at giving the go-ahead for the construction of "a political-economic nucleus to fuel the state of war into which Europe is destined to slide to the detriment of the discussions on the ever closer Union". The “system of intergovernmental collaborations” would be another way of calling a military alliance and the Quirinale Treaty and the Aachen Treaty would be nothing more than dress rehearsals. “Both were and are political treaties, that is, strengthened military alliances – says the professor. Eats -. It is no coincidence that they focus on the collaboration of military industries as drivers of growth and profit. While Eurogendfor is the internal military police of the Union intended to operate in support of this project".
LA HULPE'S SPEECH COMPLICATES THE DRAGON RACE
La Hulpe's speech would, in reality, put a spanner in the works for the attribution of a role to the former Prime Minister. The editorial director of Formiche.net Roberto Arditti thinks so. “Now there is (potentially) a new race, of which Tuesday's statements are, politically speaking, a branded confirmation. So I ask myself, what's the point of raising the bar so much when there's still a lot to do and the sensitivities are so different and difficult to reconcile – asks director Arditti -? And again: is a candidacy conceivable with partial or little harmony with the country of origin, which has a coalition in government that is anything but automatically ready to support the Draghi hypothesis? Is all this protagonism useful in obtaining Giorgia Meloni's support? I think no. The best Draghi, the one in the old days was (also) a skilled weaver behind the scenes. The one that is "too" public risks not working."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/evviva-draghi-anzi-no-girotondo-di-opinioni/ on Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:30:47 +0000.