Draghi the pragmatist disappoints the ideological Draghians
Mario Draghi? Europeanist, atlantist and liberalist. Sure. But also, or above all, pragmatic who therefore disappoints the ideological Draghians. Here's how and why. The italics of Michele Arnese, director of Start
Mario Draghi? Europeanist, atlantist and liberalist.
Sure. But also, or above all, pragmatic.
More as a liberal than as a liberal, it seems.
But ban on labels.
Europeanist? Not so.
“You have to be practical. European coordination has great added value, which I have always supported, but here, however, it is about health. So if European coordination works, great. Otherwise you have to go on your own. This is the pragmatism I was referring to earlier, ”the prime minister said Friday evening during the press conference on the Sostegni decree.
Draghi answered a question about the idea raised by Angela Merkel. To a journalist's question about the Russian Sputnik vaccine, after some utterances by the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, who had foreshadowed the possibility of a lonely street in Berlin, the German Chancellor said before Draghi spoke: "Germany uses all vaccines authorized by the EMA. I would prefer a European approach. If this does not arrive, which I have no indication of, we would have to take a German route, this would be possible. And we would do it too ”.
And Draghi, in the wake of Merkel, hissed: “European coordination is the first way to look for vaccines. If the EU continues on Sputnik well, otherwise it will proceed in another way. With pragmatism, European coordination must be sought, if it is not possible to maintain it, other ways can be seen ”.
Atlantist? Not so.
The hard and pure Americans also in Italy advise against even the idea that the health authorities can evaluate the efficacy and safety of the Russian vaccine. Draghi the pragmatist disappoints them on Sputnik.
The prime minister has also disappointed the turbo-liberalists in effective permanent service (the same ones who perhaps pocket funding and public contributions in abundance).
The President of the Council replied to the Bloomberg journalist who asked Draghi what state strategy in the economy he intends to follow – mentioning the role of CDP, the Autostrade per l'Italia dossier and the Mps case, controlled by the Treasury – : «This has been a question for times of normality but here we are in an emergency. And to restart the economy, my views on the state and the market are not needed now, but the vaccination campaign is carried out because without vaccination the pandemic and therefore the recession does not stop ».
Not only that: to those who asked him how he intends to tackle the problem of soaring debt and whether he will spend on changing the rules and parameters, he replied with the same logic: "This is the time to give and support companies and work, not to think about debt ". One more step on the rules of the European stability pact: "It seems difficult to me that they can remain the same".
With many greetings to the bards of liberal austerity.
On the other hand, the economist Giampaolo Galli, former Bank of Italy, former director general of Confindustria and then deputy of the Democratic Party, at the beginning of February commented : “Draghi is a pragmatic person. This means that it makes no sense to speak of Draghi as a man of austerity just because in August 2011 he signed the famous letter with Trichet to the Italian government in which he asked for cuts in public spending. So much so that in the following years, as president of the ECB, he took two fundamental steps that are the polar opposite of austerity: whatever it takes in the summer of 2012 was crucial to reduce the spreads of many countries including ours and then the quantitative easing which began in 2015 and continues to this day ”.
Pragmatism was explicitly evoked and invoked by Draghi on another dossier: “During the preliminary consultations I was asked by many parties what I thought about the ESM: we need to be pragmatic. At the moment the level of interest rates is such that taking the ESM is not a priority, but there is a more important reason: when we have a health plan shared by Parliament and public opinion, then the time will come to ask ourselves if it's worth taking the Mes, otherwise it's a waste of money ”.
In one fell swoop, the former ECB president trashed months and months of political-media bla-bla. Mocking the fans of the ESM and also the previous government: saying "when we have a health plan shared by Parliament and public opinion, then the time will come to ask ourselves if it is worth taking the ESM, otherwise it's a waste of money" he hinted. that ministers and pro-MES parties were so good at gargleing the media in favor of cameras and notebooks that were so vacuous in preparing "a health plan".
The apotheosis of pragmatism was touched by the response on the amnesty: “Yes, it is an amnesty,” Draghi admitted bluntly at a press conference.
The excerpt of the bills provides for a limited amount of 5,000 euros, "corresponding to a net amount of approximately 2,500 euros of interest and various penalties". And this "allows the administration to pursue the fight against tax evasion even more efficiently". The rule will be limited to a small audience, under a certain income “and perhaps with less financial resources. It will have very very limited impacts, ”he added.
Given the accumulation of bills, continued the Prime Minister, "it is clear that the State did not work and it is important that a small reform of the collection and discharge mechanisms for bills is envisaged, the fact of accessing an amnesty today does not would have solved the problem ”.
Conclusion: gentlemen and moralizing commentators, yes the government – also composed of Pd, M5s and Leu – has approved an amnesty (without doing semantic somersaults such as "fiscal peace", "tax settlement" or "systemic agreement with the Revenue Agency" ), he called it just that and the prime minister does not moralize, on the contrary he says "that the state did not work".
Sugar for the turbo-liberalists.
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Mario Draghi's support and whispers (he is not convincing about Ema). Arnese's tweets
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-draghi-il-pragmatico-delude-i-draghiani-ideologici/ on Sat, 20 Mar 2021 21:41:04 +0000.