474. Whatever it Takes!

Winston Churchill is remembered for his “blood, toil, tears and sweat…” from his “We’ll fight them on the beaches…” speech given to the House of Commons in May 1940 during Britain’s darkest hour.

Mario Draghi will be remembered for his-

 we will do...

 "whatever it takes…” 

Speech given in July 2012 as President of the Central Bank of Europe during Europe’s greatest financial crises.

Now, this man, Draghi, has been called to pull Italy out from the marshes that its politicians has sunk it into and whose electorate has put them there to do it. Yes, let’s not just blame everything on the politicians, unless we want to plead naivety, which I hardly think is the case, the electorate has to face it, it is partly their fault too either for not voting, absenteeism is enormous, and or voters who vote with rose-coloured glasses on.

However, again so as not to place the blame entirely on the electorate it has to be considered the present laws that govern the Italian voting system is contrived so that no party or coalition will have an overall majority and allows amongst the elected for all kinds of splits and splinters, shifting and shuffling from this side to the other as the whim takes one. This means that unless two or more coalitions or parties who gained the most votes do not get together and stay together there is no overall majority, hence there is no government and the hue and cry rises up forcibly once more for new elections… leading of course to a vicious circle and the boomerang shoots right back to the politicians for creating electoral laws where everyone can have their little slice of the cake at the expense and disadvantage of the whole nation, claiming it is in the interest of the people to have equality of representation!   

Probably the most hated politician at this point is the former Italian     Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, because in the midst of a pandemic   he is the artifice that caused the fall of the present government. He   has been accused of being a narcist, not to mention selfish, and   irresponsible. In September 2019, Matteo Renzi broke off from his   party, the left Democratic Party to form his own party Italia Viva (   (Italy Alive), only six months after the general election, taking with   him 24 Deputies and 12 Senators. However, he remained annexed to   the left wing which supported, together with the Five Star   Movement,  the Giuseppe Conte second government, until of course   a few days ago. Let’s face it, when Renzi was Prime Minister he it   was who put forward the present President of Italy’s name, Sergio Mattarella for election, so it’s quite possible he may have mentioned Draghi’s name too, but then who wouldn’t?

But Renzi isn’t the only one to put forward someone’s name, former Prime Minister and TV Tycoon Silvio Berlusconi during one of his terms as Prime Minister put forward Mario Draghi’s name as Governor of The Bank of Italy in 2005 which eventually led to Draghi becoming also President of the Central Bank of Europe from 2012-2019. And of course there’s no guessing who Berlusconi’s Party, Forza Italia, will give their backing to this time. And since Berlusconi is the “moral” leader of the right wing coalition The League Party with their 19% of Parliamentarians will most likely follow suit.

And the 5 Star Movement? Well, the name they put forward was and always has been that of Giuseppe Conte. Considering that this party has 32% of the Parliamentarians one wonders if Draghi can do without them.

Whatever the outcome one thing is certain Italy at this precise moment could be in no better hands than those of  Mario Draghi because we know, and we have his word for it, he will do “All that it takes…” Even if perhaps, as Churchill said with mikes off, he too will admonish that otherwise ”We’ll hit them over the heads with beer bottles, because that’s about all we’ve got!” Even though in Mario Draghi’s case it will be Prosecco wine bottles instead.