No question of Italy leaving the euro, says economy minister

ITALY has no intention of abandoning the euro, the country’s new economy minister said, despite both coalition parties having toyed with the idea.

“The position of the government is clear and unanimous,” Giovanni Tria told Corriere della Sera newspaper in his first interview since the government was formed a week ago. “There is no question of leaving the euro.”

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, one half of the coalition, flip-flopped for years on the issue of ditching the single currency, but during the election campaign came down on the side of remaining in the eurozone.

The hard-right League, the other half of the government, has a much more ambivalent attitude, with senior party figures saying only recently that they hope the euro will collapse from within, allowing Italy to exit.

The anti-euro message was thrust to the fore when the two parties jockeyed to form a coalition.

After three months of political paralysis that followed an inconclusive election on March 4, they put forward as their candidate for economy minister an economist and former minister who has called Italy’s membership of the eurozone “a German cage” and a huge error.

The candidacy of Paolo Savona was blocked by Sergio Mattarella, the president, but only after a tense stand-off which threatened to scupper the entire negotiation process. In a significant climbdown, The League and Five Star withdrew him as their candidate and

instead put forward Prof Tria, a littleknown academic with more Europhile views who was acceptable to the president. Prof Savona was instead given the consolation prize of being made European affairs minister.

Prof Tria was at pains to quash the ambiguities of the recent past, claiming that the coalition is united in not wanting to revert to the lira. “The government is determined to prevent in any way the market conditions that would lead to an exit materialising. It’s not just that we do not want to leave, we will act in such a way that the conditions do not get anywhere near to a position where they might challenge our presence in the euro.”

Prof Tria said that the coalition was determined to cut Italy’s enormous debt – a position that puts him at odds with the coalition’s extravagant spending plans. The two parties promised to drasticall1y cut taxes, lower the pensionable age and introduce a minimum monthly wage of €780 (£686).

Economists have estimated that the proposals could cost up to €100billion a year, which would worsen the country’s debt, the second highest in the eurozone after Greece.

“We do not plan on reviving growth through deficit spending,” said Prof Tria, who will lay out the government’s aims and strategies in the autumn.

He insisted that “the fundamentals of the economy are in place.”

A survey last week found that Italians’ faith in Brussels has plunged, but a majority want to remain in the eurozone and the EU. Asked in the poll whether they still had faith in the EU, 56 per cent said No while 34 per cent said Yes, with 10 per cent undecided or not giving an opinion.

Despite that, 55 per cent of Italians would vote to remain in the bloc if a Brexit-style referendum was held, the poll, conducted by Ipsos for Corriere della Sera, found.

If a referendum was held on ditching the euro, only 29 per cent would vote to leave, with the rest undecided.