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Mario Draghi

Mario Draghi had been President of the Council of Ministers [Prime Minister] of Italy since 13 February 2021. President Sergio Mattarella asked Draghi to be prime minister after party wrangling brought down the previous administration of Giuseppe Conte. Following a week of consultations, almost all the main parties from across the political spectrum pledged their support to Draghi, and prominent figures from these groups were named as ministers. Only the ultra-right Fratelli d'Italia had announced from the beginning that its members would vote against his candidature.

On 03 February 2021 President Sergio Mattarella asked former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi to form a non-political government to steer Italy through the coronavirus pandemic after last-ditch negotiations among political parties failed. The head of state held talks with Draghi after efforts to salvage the collapsed coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had failed. Mattarella appealed "to all political forces [to support] a high-profile government", ruling out the only other possibility – early elections – as ill-advised given the array of challenges facing Italy. "Super Mario" Draghi will now hold talks with political parties to try and muster support in parliament for an administration that will be tasked with handling the twin coronavirus and economic crises battering Italy. The last time a technocrat took charge was in 2011, when another economist, Mario Monti, was entrusted with helping Italy out of a debt crisis. Parliamentarians soon turned on him when they deemed that his economic medicine was too pungent.

The Draghi Government was formed under the imperative of carrying out an effective campaign vaccination, therefore to combat the Covid-19 epidemic and to implement the Plan of Rebirth and Resilience of the country. Although the Government program has a preeminent character to fulfill the twogreat tasks mentioned, since its inception has sparked many political changes on thenational scene both of a general nature and within some individual parties. Inin some cases the leaders of some parties have changed and in others they have changedprogressively the programmatic contents supported up to that moment. In somecases the changes have been conspicuous and in others they have acted almost under a trace, tootheir political outcomes being evident.

He faced challenges such as pulling Italy’s querulous parties together, staving off market speculation on a debt pile equivalent to 154% of output, and plowing on with a daunting reform program required to keep European Union Recovery Fund cash flowing. Draghi’s legacy as premier wpould include one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates and an enhanced international profile founded on a newly forged alliance with France. Not aligned with any party, Draghi governed Italy as a technocrat, lending his significant gravitas to a country that has long punched below its weight.

From November 2011 to November 2019, Mario Draghi served as President of the European Central Bank, as well as the Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board. The ECB is the central bank of the 19 European Union countries which use the euro. The eurozone financial crisis was already well underway when Draghi took office as president of the ECB in November 2011. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements.

From 2006 to October 2011 he served as Governor of the Banca d’Italia [BOI]. Almost unique among industrial world central banks, the BOI is a private institution with a Board of Governors and stockholders. Draghi's first major speech as governor was well received by an audience composed largely of bankers, industrialists, economists, and policy makers. Draghi brought to the job a more down-to-earth, accessible style than his predecessor, who left under pressure following alleged efforts to block mergers between Italian and other European banks.

Draghi implemented incremental changes in the way the Bank does business to bring about change without unsettling the Bank's deeply entrenched and bureaucratically conservative civil servants, whom Draghi praised during the meeting as "a great staff" and part of "a great institution." Since his appointment as Bank of Italy Governor, Draghi had stated a clear preference for increased competition in Italian credit and banking markets. Draghi urged Italian banks to discard their "strategic inertness" and become more competitive by cutting exceptionally high transaction charges. Draghi believed that domestic banking consolidation has been too slow and that Italian banks should proactively merge among themselves to ward off foreign bank acquisition. Draghi publicly stated that, while "patriotism is a virtue, it must be practiced under set rules, which these days are European, and not protectionist."

Between April 2006 and November 2011, he was Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum (later the Financial Stability Board). Between 2002 and 2005, Draghi was Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs International. He was Director General of the Italian Treasury (1991-2001), Chairman of the European Economic and Financial Committee (2000-2001), and Chairman of the OECD’s Working Party No 3 (1999-2001).

In 1993 he was appointed Chairman of the Italian Committee for Privatisations and from 1984 to 1990 he was an Executive Director of the World Bank. During his time at the Treasury, he chaired the committee that revised Italian corporate and financial legislation and drafted the law that governs Italian financial markets. He has also served on the boards of several banks and corporations. From 1984 to 1990 he was an Executive Director of the World Bank.

Draghi has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton since 2009. He was previously an Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institution and an Institute of Politics Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Between 1975 and 1981, he was Professor of Economics at the universities of Trento, Padua and Venice, and from 1981 to 1991 he served as Professor of Economics at Università degli Studi di Firenze. He has written and edited a number of publications on macroeconomic and financial issues.

Between 1975 and 1981, he was Professor of Economics at the Universities of Trento, Padua and Venice. Between 1981 and 1990 he was Professor of Economics at Università degli Studi di Firenze. He graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1970 and received his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. Mario Draghi was born in Rome on 3 September 1947. In January 2022, Draghi’s possible shift to become Italy’s president risks reminding investors how the country is never far away from political instability. Draghi’s premiership risks ending with elections scheduled for 2023.

In the survey, Il fattore Draghi e la politica italiana (The Draghi factor and Italian politics), results showed that Italians, in one role or another,they would like Mario Draghi to remain firmly at the helm of the country. 70% of the Interviewees would still like it at Palazzo Chigi, while 12% would prefer his election to the office of President of the Republic. Only 18% would like him to hold neither office. There was a very clear majority (over 80%) who would still like him to lead the country.

The end of the COVID state of emergency in Italy brought an end also to its 67th government which was appointed by President Sergio Mattarella to provide national unity in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The technocratic government was the answer of former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi – appointed as Prime Minister to lead Italy through the post-pandemic crisis – who received near across-the-board confidence from the parliament in February 2021 as parties put aside their ideologies in favour of national recovery. But just as restrictions were lifted in July 2022, the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S) withdrew its support and followed by the populist right-wing League (Lega) and the liberal-conservative Forza Italia (FI), brought the government to an end, forcing Italy into its 19th legislature.