What the US is asking of Draghi
Pros and cons of Draghi's Atlanticism: now the US is delegating to Italy the role of ruler in the EU that used to be London. The article by Tino Oldani for Italy Today
The meeting in Rome between Mario Draghi and the new chancellor Olaf Scholz has led many analysts to forecasts that go beyond the usual words of circumstance that the heads of government exchange after confidential talks. Predictions not without imagination, which should be taken with a grain of salt. There are those who, deceiving themselves in my opinion, already glimpse a Berlin-Paris-Rome triangle taking the place of the Franco-German axis. There are those who support, in support of this forecast, the hypothesis of a Rome-Berlin treaty, similar to the Quirinal Treaty with France, something that has never been heard of in Germany, since it is pure Italic fantasy . And there are those who, more down to earth, hope for a side game between Draghi and Emmanuel Macron to convince Scholz to mediate with the countries of Northern Europe to agree on a reform of the EU stability pact that will send the ten-year and bankruptcy to the archive austerity policy. A reform, so necessary, that introduces new criteria for the state finances of EU countries, such as to be compatible with the European Green Deal, which will require huge public and private investments, possible only with a strong economic recovery.
Clearly, these are all hypotheses. The only certain fact, in each of them, is that Italy will be able to play the game, at European level, only with Draghi at the helm of the government. The most authoritative media in Europe say so. And, even if they don't say it openly, they also think so in Washington, where they rely heavily on Draghi's Atlanticism. But what is Atlanticism? As a rule, a politician is defined as an atlantist when he wants to emphasize his loyalty to NATO, the military alliance of the Atlantic nations originally opposed to the bloc of Soviet Russia, and today to Vladimir Putin's Russia. A loyalty that, for 70 years, has gone hand in hand with the friendship with the United States, which was the promoter of NATO and is today the first financier and supplier of soldiers and weapons. In Draghi's case, however, Atlanticism indicates something more, which characterizes his true political profile, and completes his portrait of a banker lent to politics.
Some aspects of the Atlanticist Draghi, for and against, are at the center of a short essay on the Eurasia website ("Geopolitica del Draghismo"), signed by Daniela Perra, master at the High School of Economics and International Relations of the Catholic University of Milan . What emerges is the portrait of a prime minister of total confidence of the Joe Biden administration in the power game that the US is waging, on a geopolitical level, within Europe on the one hand, and against China and Russia on the other. other. "Draghi's role as an agent of Atlanticist interests in Europe is long-standing," writes Perra. “When he was at the helm of the ECB, his task was to counter the power of the largest European central bank, the Bundesbank. The objective, not too veiled, was to put a stop to the problem of the German trade surplus, which was an undesirable factor in the project of American hegemonic affirmation over Europe ”.
Further on: "In this operation of control of Germany, both in terms of excessive power within Europe and in terms of aspirations to build a privileged relationship with Russia, the recent Treaty of Quirinal and between France and Italy, under the supervision of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. In this regard, it should be emphasized that the role of balance between Germany and France had historically been reserved for Great Britain. Today, after Brexit, this task was attributed to Mario Draghi's Italy, who, together with France, will also exercise a controlling role within the Mediterranean, to ensure that the royal hegemon (the United States ; ed) can concentrate its efforts on containing China ".
Hence, Draghi's anti-China moves: "It is not surprising that, since his inauguration, the Draghi government, also pushed by the ultra-Atlanticist minister of the League, Giancarlo Giorgetti, has used the instrument of golden power three times to avoid the acquisition by Chinese groups of Italian companies, which operate in specific sectors. The latest case is that of Zhejiang Jingsheng Materials, which was prevented from buying the Italian branch of Applied Materials, in the semiconductor sector. Still in the microchip sector, in March he had prevented the acquisition of 70% of Lpe by the Shenzen Invenland Holding group, while in October the golden power was exercised to prevent the agrochemical giant Syngenta from taking the lead of the Romagna food group Verisem. ".
In the face of the anti-China moves, the essay argues, with a critical tone, that “the Italian government has not shown any concern in the face of the attempted acquisition of Tim by the North American fund KKR . Just as there was no particular jolt of pride when Fincantieri, stopped by an Anglo-Australian pact that paved the way for the more famous (and extended to the USA) Aukus, lost a 23 billion order for the supply. of Fremm frigates to the Royal Australian Navy ». Finally, to underline Draghi's Atlanticism even in the face of the pandemic, Perra's essay, without mentioning the name of General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, recalls that "the very management of the vaccination campaign in Italy was entrusted to a highly decorated NATO general , decorated among other things with the Legion of Merit of the United States of America ». A veiled but wrong criticism. In this case, long live Atlanticism: compared to the disastrous management of Domenico Arcuri, the leap in quality, in terms of lives saved, is there for all to see.
Article published on italiaoggi
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-chiedono-gli-usa-a-draghi/ on Sun, 26 Dec 2021 07:01:38 +0000.