Now give us a vote on euro
Europe left reeling by Italy PM’s poll defeat
Don’t panic!’ came the desperate cry down the European corridors of power yesterday morning as EU leaders digested grim overnight news from Rome: Another one bites the dust. The revolving door was spinning once again at the Chigi Palace, official home of the Italian prime minister, as Matteo Renzi was evicted from office – only to be invited back for a day or two.
Hours earlier, a surge of anti- establishment feeling had forced Mr Renzi to resign after a referendum on constitutional reforms.
Last night, however, President Sergio Mattarella invited him back for a few days to supervise completion of the national budget for 2017.
‘I’m doing it out of duty,’ said Mr Renzi who is now expected to leave at the end of the week.
opposition calls mounted for the president to hold a general election rather than install yet another interim placeman. Right now, any such poll would be grim for the European status quo given the strength of anti-EU feeling here.
Sunday’s 60:40 margin of defeat – on a whopping 70 per cent turnout – was considerably higher than expected. Back in the old days, a thumbs-down from the Emperor’s box at the Colosseum could hardly have been any clearer. With Brexit and Trump, the fall of Renzi will now be engraved in the populist annals of 2016.
For the most part, Rome stayed calm and carried on yesterday, though there were scuffles between police and protesters outside the Chigi Palace last night. The markets held firm – for the
‘Economic meltdown’
moment. Instability had already been priced in to the market. The Italian government changes management more often than the national football team; after two years at the helm, Mr Renzi, 41, almost qualifies for a long-service medal.
Yet this referendum was an historic victory for an unlikely alliance of Italian parties of all political persuasions who agree on very little except one thing: They are all extremely fed up with the EU.
The departure of Mr Renzi, Italy’s third unelected prime minister in a row, has left millions of Italians demanding a general election to produce a leader with genuine democratic legitimacy.
As things stand, such an election could very well return a majority of MPs who have pledged a referendum on membership of the euro – and, thus, the EU itself. With several of Italy’s big banks in a critical condition, the prospect of economic meltdown just got worse.
This was, therefore, a dreadful result for the European project.
Yet, even before Italy had finished breakfast, EU grandees had been despatched to pooh-pooh any notion of trouble. Move along now, Signor. Nothing to look at here.
‘It doesn’t really change the situation economically in Italy or in the Italian banks,’ said Holland’s Jeroen Dijsselbloem, leader of the eurozone finance ministers’ club, as he arrived in Brussels for what everyone was determined not to call a crisis meeting. ‘The problems that we have today are the problems we had yesterday.’
Bad news? Nonsense, said Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble: ‘There is no reason to talk of a euro crisis and there is certainly no reason to conjure one up.’
At least his boss, Angela Merkel, had the grace to acknowledge that she was ‘sad’ for Mr Renzi. Such a charming young man compared with the oafish Silvio Berlusconi
who used to treat her like a waitress. ‘The referendum was a question on domestic Italian politics,’ sniffed France’s Michel Sapin. ‘Italy is a solid country, anchored to the European project.’
As far as several protest groups outside the Italian parliament yesterday were concerned, Italy is not so much ‘anchored’ as handcuffed. ‘Since we joined the euro, everything has been devalued. Everything that we earn now is worth half as much as it used to,’ said Nicola Tagliafierro, 45, a teacher and part of a centreRight group called Nazionalisti.
Their little band of demonstrators had come from all over Italy. All echoed a very familiar Italian complaint that the euro was worth 1,500 lire when Italy gave up its old currency in 1999 whereas the equivalent rate is now 3,000 lire.
Chuck in low-cost labour from Eastern Europe and record numbers of migrants and Italy is increasingly fertile ground for populist parties like Five Star, the anticapitalist Eurosceptic movement started by comedian Beppe Grillo (currently accounting for 91 of the 630 seats in the Italian parliament). ‘The people were never given their say when we joined the euro. We will make sure they have a referendum now and, unlike Britain after Brexit, we will have a plan either way,’ said Manlio di Stefano, a Five Star MP and foreign affairs spokesman.
An IT engineer born in Sicily, he moved to Milan in search of work. ‘None of my friends at home had jobs!’ he told me. He added: ‘I still love the European dream but it has been ruined by EU leaders … They’re only interested in financial institutions and austerity, not people.’
While extracting Italy from the EU would make Brexit look like child’s play – given its membership of a single currency which currently serves as a life support machine – the idea is no longer dismissed out of hand. ‘At the moment, Italians would vote to leave Europe. Before Brexit? No. But now, after Brexit? Well it sets an example,’ said Gianno Zito, 53, from Rome.
Back at the Chigi Palace, post-war PM number 41 was preparing to pack up his worldly goods last night when the president’s call came through. For now, he remains Prime Minister 41.5.