ROME – When Matteo Renzi, the former Italian prime minister who currently votes with about 3 percent, caused the collapse of the Italian government last month, he became the target of almost universal oppression and confusion as he plunged the country into political chaos. the middle pandemic.
Now he takes a victory lap.
Mr. Renzi’s gambit not only caused the fall of a prime minister and government, but also dangerously incompetent. It also led to a stunning upgrade that led to the formation of Mario Draghi, a Europe titan who is widely acknowledged to have saved the euro, to form a broad national unity government that is expected to form this week.
In Europe, the fame of Mr. Draghi immediately increases the stature and credibility of Italy to absorb and spend a large aid package that can determine the future of both Italy and the European Union. At home, the seriousness of Mr. Draghi’s arrival re-ordered the Italian political landscape and the populist enemies of Mr. Renzi undermines.
“That was my strategy. I did it alone, with 3 percent! Says Mr. Renzi, a former mayor of Florence, who is not shy about his ability to exercise the levers of power and run the competition. ‘It’s all a game of parliamentary tactics. And let’s say it helped to work in the palace where Machiavelli worked for five years. ”
Admirers of mr. Renzi was amazed at his magic, in which he somehow created the conditions for the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, to kill Mr. Take Draghi’s name out of a hat. They looked at mr. Draghi – who as president of the European Central Bank said he would ‘do anything’ to save the euro – as a savior after three years of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
“The choice belongs to President Sergio Mattarella, the honor is to Matteo Renzi and everything he needs,” wrote Christian Rocca, the editor of Linkiesta, a pro-European and anti-populist publication.
Fans of mr. Renzi talks about how he did the dirty work, which was tacitly demanded by various political forces, to Mr. Conte to remove. In doing so, they say, he has at least temporarily put down the curtain on a period of populist politics, ushered in by the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the nationalist league party of Matteo Salvini.
But the most exuberant praise of mr. Renzi may have come from mr. Renzi.
“This is a masterpiece of Italian politics,” he said of the events. Brought Draghi to Rome.
Mr. Renzi’s narcissism and naked ambition made him unbearable for many Italians.
“Renzi remains the problem,” said Gianfranco Pasquino, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Bologna. Mr. Renzi’s insatiable need for attention was “the one constant” in Italian politics, he said.
Like him or hate him – and many now fall into the latter category – what is difficult to dispute is that Mr. Renzi is the leading political operator in Italy, someone who does not pass up a political opportunity, a raging virus or no raging virus.
‘Why now? Why now? Why now? ” Mr. Renzi said even his friends asked him when he pulled the plug when Italy started implementing the vaccine. But he said the pandemic was alarmingly risky to stay on the same course, especially as the country had to decide what to do with more than 200 billion euros in European emergency funds. “If we did not do it during the pandemic, we would never have done it.”
Mr. Renzi practices in these kinds of things.
In 2014, he reportedly tweeted that the prime minister, of his own party, should be “calm” and then accept his job. The ‘demolition man’ of Italian politics, as he was called, seemed unstoppable.
But in 2016, Renzi bet his office and ambitious reform agenda on a referendum to change the Italian Constitution, and all his enemies voted against him. He lost, resigned and promised to quit politics. Instead, he remains the leader of the center-left Democratic Party.
That foothold mattered. In 2018, Five Star had the strongest performance in national elections, but not enough support remained to form a government on its own. It whipped up the Democratic Party, but Mr. Renzi did not want to allow the marriage. Instead, Five Star joined the nationalists of Mr. Salvini’s League joined and formed an aggressive anti-European coalition. They have Mr. Conte elected as their prime minister.
Mr. Renzi looks like yesterday’s news. But in 2019, Mr. Salvini, who has grown in popularity, scrutinized the coalition and tried to bring about the election and seize what he calls ‘full powers’. It was then Mr. Renzi struck. He turned around and formed an alliance between his party and Five Star, which Mr. Salvini to the opposition.
To increase his leverage in the new government, Mr. Renzi founded a new party, Italia Viva, which had just enough support to get Mr. Forcing Conte to rely on him for the continued existence of the government. Mr. Renzi hoped the party’s support would increase. It has shrunk.
Meanwhile, Mr. Conte Italy led through the first months of the pandemic. His popularity skyrocketed and ate into the centrist atmosphere where Mr. Renzi’s future ambitions were seated. He told Mr. Renzi’s support is taken for granted. Always a mistake.
In January, when the deaths from Covid-19 increased, the curfew increased and economic frustration increased, Mr. Renzi made a move that was, according to many, unthinkable.
But even while many people favor his hijacking of the government into a hungry attempt to win more cabinet positions and influence, they acknowledge that Mr. Renzi had strong criticism on his part.
He blamed the government for failing to reform an icy legal system that deterred outside investment. He criticized the government for a lack of vision to spend hundreds of billions of euros on European emergency money. He demanded that Italy apply for up to € 36 billion in cheap EU loans for health systems.
It was a poison pill, because populists in mr. Conte’s support for Five Star would never give Brussels too much power. The government fell, but Mr. Conte was confident that he had the support of Mr. Renzi could replace with other legislators. Mr. Renzi congratulated him.
Mr. Conte became increasingly desperate and Mr. Renzi offered a number of cabinet posts to rejoin the government, says Mr. Renzi. Instead, he tied Mr. Conte together and then, at the last minute, when he was convinced that Mr. Draghi would enter, walked.
Mr. Renzi said his bottom line popularity “absolutely” gave him the freedom to move, because instead of fearing I would lose support, “I was worried about losing the chance.”
Days later, Mr. Mattarella mnr. Draghi summoned.
That chicken meat plays out in public. The question is: Did Mr. Renzi played a role behind closed doors in alliances around Mr. Bring in Draghi?
Mr. Renzi said it was always his tacit desire to kill Mr. To replace Conte with mr. Draghi, with whom he said he spoke regularly about Italy’s economic situation, also during the crisis. But he insisted that Mr. Draghi ‘never spoke to me’ about the position. On the question of whether he, Mr. Renzi, with mr. Draghi talked about such an outcome, Mr. Renzi replied, “Next question.”
‘I did nothing, it was all Mattarella. Smile emoji, ‘said Mr. Renzi said mischievously, adding that out of all the political ways he made during his career, ‘this operation was the most difficult. ‘
Narratively, Mr. Renzi’s once shameless call for loans from Europe softens.
On the question of whether Italy the loan under mr. Draghi would accept, he said: ‘It could be. Draghi will decide. ”
What was important was that Mr. Draghi arrived. Five Star, which is already shrinking, dares implosion because its hard-line populists refuse to join Mr. Join Draghi while others stream to him. Mr. Salvini, whose northern base of businessmen is excited about Mr. Draghi, must throw years of anti-Brussels demagoguery down the drain, essentially.
Mr. Renzi will not have the leverage to hold the grand coalition hostage, and he will not have nearly as many cabinet locks as Conte offered him. Instead, he gets time and a new political back wind that might blow him somewhere better.
Meanwhile, Mr. Conte last week held a news conference behind a desk in the middle of a square, as if urging passers-by to sign a petition.
Mr. Renzi said that Mr. Conte, as Mr. Salvini came out before him, before himself.
“Now,” he said. “Play over.”