Ninety minutes on the hardest crisis. Draghi to the premier: “Do not isolate yourself in the EU”

ROME – The desk of Mario Draghi it is immaculate. She also took away the only remaining folder. It is as heavy as the crisis on the horizon. Contains the files that the chief executive shows to Giorgia Meloni, just before giving her the bell that marks the handover: energy, war in Ukraine, inflation, recession, the chaos of the negotiations on Ita, relations with the European Chancelleries. Ninety minutes of fear at Palazzo Chigi. An hour and a half that contains a gigantic challenge. Condensed in a confidence that the former banker gives to the leader, when the conversation draws to a close: “We were in full pandemic when I started my job as premier. There were demonstrations right below. I feared for social cohesion. And. I did everything to keep tensions from reaching the streets “. It is the same, identical alarm that is shaking the new Prime Minister. “Some signs don’t leave me alone.” For this reason, during the speech scheduled for tomorrow in the Chamber for trust, Meloni will choose a “draghian” path, inviting politics and the country to “maximum unity to face the most serious economic crisis of recent years”.

The two, in fact, had already seen each other. In great secrecy, in recent days, through deep tunnels that connect the Chamber to the headquarters of the executive. This time, however, Draghi can take all the time he needs. And speak to whoever succeeds her with a frankness that scratches. Not out of acrimony, hatred, on the contrary: the outgoing president breaks the protocol, waits for Meloni on the stairs of the first floor, he is warm as he has rarely shown himself. Only that he wants to warn of the looming clouds. A perspective to which the leader gives a political guise, speaking to the Council of Ministers which met immediately after: “Many are betting on our failure, we must make too many birds of ill omen change their mind”. She is not referring to Draghi, but to the seemingly insurmountable problems that await her.

Energy is obviously the heart of the reflections, the mirror of the anguish of these hours. Of course, Draghi points out that the price set at the TTF – the market where the cost of gas is regulated – has more than halved compared to a few weeks ago. If the trend is confirmed, the specter of recession could be contained. But there is the supply node. And then there is the implementation of the political decisions taken at the last European Council already during the EU Energy Council of Ministers, on the agenda for tomorrow. In the normative details put in black and white, the distance between failure and success will be measured.

“It is important not to isolate oneself in Europe – is Draghi’s advice – to play on the shore”. It means letting go of the leaders of the East and focusing above all on France. the only possible ally to overcome the German resistance. It is no coincidence that a few hours later, in the evening, Meloni meets Emmanuel Macron in a Roman hotel.
The fears of the new premier about the obstacles to be avoided are both prudence, a sense of limits, concern for some possible preconceptions that the European Chancelleries could oppose. She talks about it with Draghi. On this point, the former banker is cautious, but not hostile: to the partners, he confides, “I asked to judge the actions, the facts”. An approach that is both reassuring and challenging.

Ninety minutes of fear, because the dossiers do not allow a honeymoon, stifle political margins, produce conflicting needs. On expensive energy and the crisis in the purchasing power of families, for example, the need for state aid risks opening up chasms in the state budget: “Attention to debt – this is the meaning of Draghi’s reasoning – it is time to keep the accounts in order “. Meloni listens, takes note, gets even more alarmed. He knows that the markets could punish any misstep, he has in his eyes the example of Liz Truss, barely consumed by the grip of investors. The effect was to deprive the Italian premier of a bank on which she had decided to invest for the next few months.

When the match ends, the bell changes hands. Meloni spends words of appreciation for Draghi’s attitude, thanks him for the institutional attention that made an orderly transition possible. In another room, the outgoing undersecretary to the presidency, Roberto Garofoli, closes the parallel meeting with his successor, Alfredo Mantovano. Then Meloni gathers his ministers. Hit by ninety minutes involved, he starts from the fundamentals. “We talk little – is the invitation – we try to do our best”.