The new rebuke in Meloni sul Mes

“Convince”, and not “wait”. It is perhaps only a hint: but it is evidently the sign of a patience that is running out, of an intolerance that is growing. That is, the intolerance of the president of the Mes, Pierre Gramegna, in the face of the stubborn reluctance of the Meloni government in ratifying the new treaty of the bailout fund. Therefore, if until now Gramegna, and with him the president of the Eurogroup Paschal Donohoe, while not hiding a certain annoyance, had always been very careful in deferring to the wishes of Italian deputies and senators, this time the message is clearer. “I continue to tell the members of the Italian government that it is up to them, of course, to convince their Parliament,” explains Gramegna. “It is a sovereign country, but unfortunately if Italy does not ratify, it blocks all the other 19 countries of the Mes. For which I trust and expect Italy to show solidarity with others”, insists the president of the Mes. And he does so during an interview with the US broadcaster CNBC recorded last Friday. When they say: be recognized. In short, Meloni’s boycott of the reform of the bailout fund also ends up in the American debate around the stability of the European banking system.

This time, however, the tones chosen by Gramegna, compared to his accommodating attitude of the recent past, are clear-cut. “I think a lot of explanations are needed,” he says. He refers to those that Meloni should provide to justify his opposition to a project wanted by all of Europe. “Because there is no doubt that the new treaty would be particularly useful in the event of financial turmoillike the ones we are seeing on the markets right now, since the Mes will become the backstop of the Single Resolution Fund in case of need”.

And besides being incomprehensible in terms of merit, Meloni’s attitude is also unsustainable in terms of method. “Italy was at the negotiating table when it was decided to strengthen the role of the Mes, in 2019 and 2020. I myself was Finance Minister of Luxembourg, I took part in the negotiations “. And here perhaps Gramegna is guilty of naivety. He doesn’t know that, despite the “great nation” pose that Meloni shows, nothing works better, in the Italian Parliament, than saying this: “It is the legacy of previous governments”. And never mind, if in Brussels they don’t take us seriously.

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• Valerio Valentini

• Born in L’Aquila, in 1991. Grew up in Collemare, up there in the Apennines. Classical high school diploma, degree in Modern Literature at the University of Trento. Al Foglio since 2017. I wrote a book, “Gli 80 di Camporammaglia”, published by Laterza, with which I won the Campiello Opera Prima award in 2018. I like good books and good cinema. And cycling, everything, even the bad stuff.