The left’s appeal against the Mes and the return of “eighteenth”

The town is once again being traversed by drafts of “eighteenth”that storm of anti-establishment revolt and anti-European populism that in 2018 it characterized the radical left and the sovereign rightleading to the success of the M5s and the Lega and therefore to the Conte government. The echoes of that season that was leading Italy to crash resound today on a theme such as the ratification of the reform of the Mes, which in the rest of the Eurozone was a trivial bureaucratic step while in Italy it is a crucial political node. Because it makes the ghosts of the reappear right no euro (and therefore anti Mes) and of the left hostile to the “ordoliberal” construction of the EUwho on Micromega invites the Meloni government not to ratify the new treaty.

The more than 30 leftist academics, mostly economists, say the government Meloni “does well not to ratify the reform” and on this point she invites him “not to give in to pressure and to stay on this line”. It is clear that Giorgia Meloni could give in to pressure or to the temptation of ratification, also as a point of the strategy for building a conservative and pro-European right, and so the reds rush to the aid of the brown faction of the majority which is in danger of failing. Micromega’s appeal says that the main argument, according to which the reform of the Mes would be necessary for the completion of the Banking Union because it introduces the backstop to the Single Resolution Fund for bank crisis management, is unfounded. Because the completion of the banking union “does not depend on the approval of the ESM reform, but on the wrong and dangerous attitude of some countries” such as the Germany who believe that before risk sharing “a risk reduction must be provided”, thus putting pressure on the banks that have to get rid of securities of countries with high debt (Italy).

But more generally, left-wing economists say that “the ESM was born very badly and reformed worse” given that it is only required to pursue the interests of creditors, “which would have the last word in the judgment on debt sustainability of those who resort to it” and what’s more imposes bankruptcy policies “as the experience of Greece teaches”. Therefore: “The only sensible reform of the Mes would be its abolitionand the attribution of the 80.5 billion capital paid by the Member States to a constituency Debt agency”.

The appeal is based on some false data. For example it is not at all true that the last word on debt sustainability belongs to the ESMbecause precisely with the reform this task falls to the European Commission. And it is short-sighted to limit the role of the ESM to the Greek case, because four other countries that have requested assistance from the ESM such as Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal and Spain they have come out of the crisis well and better than countries that have not resorted to the Mes such as Italy. But what most eludes logic is political strategy. In other words, believing that Italy’s failure to ratify would lead to the dissolution of the Mes rather than keeping it as it is. Assume that a veto from Italy it would lead all the other 18 countries that agree on the reform, Germany in the lead, to embrace Italy’s position on the creation of a “debt agency”. Think that block the backstop (wanted by Italy) facilitate the completion of the Banking Union on a line more favorable to Italy rather than ruining everything.

In short, it is not known whether the technical imprecision or the political superficiality is more surprising. For the interest of the country, but also for its own, Meloni would do better not to follow the “eighteenth” line. If he has any doubts about it, he can always look at the results collected, for the country and for his party, by his deputy Matteo Salvini.

• Luciano Capone

• Grew up in Irpinia, in Savignano. Studies in Milan, Catholic University. Liberal by training, journalist by deformation. Al Foglio first as a reader, then a collaborator, finally an editor. I mainly deal with economics, but also with politics, investigations, culture, miscellaneous and possible