Mario Draghi alias Super Mario, can he rescue Italy as he rescued the Euro in 2012?
Italy is synonymous with the phrase “change of government.” The nation has had 66 governments since World War II, that is on the average a little over one government a year at 1.15. Last week another government fell in Italy when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned. He had been trying to fend off pressures for months from former Premier Matteo Renzi and his little Italy of Value (IV), to jettison the idea of a task force to decide how the €200 billion EU recovery fund should be spent. Renzi had been pressing the government, a coalition of the 5 Star Movement (M5S), the Democratic Party (PD), Italy of Value and Free and Equal (LeU), to make structural investment with the fund, access the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) for fund to invest in the health sector as well as letting the parliament decide what to do with the fund. For months, there were bickering which culminated in Renzi pulling out of the government. The fear in Italy is that the recovery fund will end up in wrong hands, hence Renzi insistence on structural investment that will guarantee jobs and succour to the citizenry who have been hit hard by the pandemic. While many view Renzi’s position on the issue as tenable, they however disagree with his tactics of having his way of or bringing down the government at a time the nation is bleeding from the devastating effect of COVID-19.

After the March 4, 2018 general election, there was a hung parliament in both the lower and upper houses with no party commanding an outright majority to form a government. The ensuing negotiations put the M5S in pole position to try and form a government. They had emerged into the political fray few years earlier brandishing their anti-establishment credential. Italians loved the new song they were singing and flocked to the movement. The M5S, founded by the comedian Beppe Grillo, denounced the EU single currency the Euro as the basis of Italy’s economic woes. Italians, especially the old generation, fond of the Lire, loved the music of the M5S. During negotiations they vowed not to have anything to do with the PD which was a representation of the establishment they wanted to bring down. The M5S in their heydays displayed political recklessness which negated the principle of horse trading often associated with politics. They failed to realise or were in denial of the fact that in politics there are no permanent foes or friends – the politician who vilifies you in broad day light would wax lyrical about you in the cloak of darkness. The English playwright William Shakespeare said that “misery acquaints one with strange bedfellows.” The M5S unable to muster the numbers to form a government forged an alliance with the anti-Euro and anti-immigrant erstwhile provincial party the League (Lega) of Matteo Salvini…(get a copy of the latest edition of AfroLife magazine now on sale nationwide for more).