Mario Draghi at the ECB helm is just what Italy needs to re-establish its international credibility

YOU MIGHT call it a case of fiscal rectitude in the time of “Bunga Bunga”. If you were looking for a sober, serious and capable Italian, complete with impressive international track record, 63-year-old Mario Draghi is your man.

At a time when certain other Italian public figures have tended to accentuate the often “colourful” side to public life in the land of Machiavelli, Draghi is the very model of an almost Prussian sense of seriousness, public reserve and understatement.

The man who, barring last-minute accidents, now seems certain to take over from Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Central Bank next November, is precisely what the doctor ordered when it comes to re-establishing an Italian international credibility that has taken the odd knock in recent times, thanks to You Know Who.

If you think this is just the prejudiced view of a Rome correspondent, consider this assessment last week of Draghi’s forthcoming appointment by Italy’s leading financial daily, Il Sole 24 Ore.

Highlighting the meritocratic, rather than clientelist aspect of this nomination, Il Sole comments: “[This appointment] is all the more rare in that the chosen candidate does not come from the ‘right’ country (which in this case would be Germany) but rather he comes from a country which, in the eyes of many Europeans, is especially unlikely to produce a trustworthy central banker . . .”

Il Sole goes on to explain that, such are the reservations of European public opinion about an Italian taking over at the helm of what we like to call the world’s second most powerful bank, many European media commentators have been busy reassuring their audiences that, yes, he is Italian but, despite that, he is the right man for the job.

Not for nothing does a leading figure in the Italian business world such as former Fiat president and current Ferrari boss Luca Cordero di Montezemolo see Draghi’s likely appointment as a matter of pride for Italy.

“I’m very glad about this because, above all, he deserves it . . . and I’m glad for Italy, especially at this moment, because a representative of our splendid entrepreneurial class, indeed one of the leading members of that class, will bring honour and prestige to our country.”

Remember, only a few months back, Germany’s bestselling daily, Das Bild ran a headline of “Mamma Mia” in response to the idea that Draghi might be the next ECB president. Inflation and Italians go together, commented the paper, like “tomato sauce and pasta”.

In the circumstances, Draghi needed a little bit of positive press. Il Sole points out, however, that such has been the media binge on depicting Draghi as a serious and competent figure that the “reassurance” was in the end almost a “humiliation”, especially for Italians living abroad:

“There have been lots of references to his seriousness, to the fact that he can talk in a calm way, using tones of moderation and that he behaves in a dignified, good-mannered way. It is almost as if, nowadays, the only thing you can expect from an Italian public figure is the behaviour of a coarse buffoon.”

What is certain about Draghi is that he does appear to tick many of the required boxes. A PhD graduate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his glittering curriculum vitae also includes a decade as director general of the Italian treasury, six years as a director of the World Bank, three years with Goldman Sachs and chairmanship of the Financial Stability Board, not to forget his current job as head of the Bank of Italy.

He left Goldman’s to take the helm at the Italian central bank after his predecessor, Antonio Fazio, was forced to quit in 2005 over a bank takeover scandal that tarnished the country’s image. Fazio was seen as being actively hostile towards foreign takeover bids of Italian banks.

The Goldman Sachs connection was originally thought likely to undermine Draghi’s candidature but those rumblings have since disappeared.

More recently, Bild has lauded Draghi as stern, “with his feet on the ground,” purposeful, loyal and “sharp-edged” – virtues that Germans, as devotees of economic stability, see in themselves.

What is also clear about Draghi’s appointment is that it owes much to an impressive track record and very little to homeland sponsorship. Just two years ago, when Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was caught up in the throes of one of his many scandals, media speculation was rife that his government might fall, to be replaced by a “technical” executive, led by, yes, Mario Draghi.

One suspects that such speculation alone was enough to cause a serious chill in relations between Messrs Draghi and Berlusconi.

Draghi could not be more different in his public behaviour than his famous compatriot. In the fashionable Parioli area of Rome, where he lives, he is often seen out doing the shopping on Saturdays at the fruit-and-vegetable market. Likewise, he regularly takes his turn in the queue at the butcher’s (he is reportedly an excellent cook).

He often travels around in the family car, driven by his wife, Serena. On the train, he usually travels second-class, while he is a regular habitué of certain low-cost airlines. On top of that, he does not smoke, he drinks but one glass of red wine per day, and keeps fit in the gym.

Ironically, it would seem that in Italy, the ECB has found Das Richtige Mann for a euro zone economy that ranges from the skint (Ireland and Greece) to the struggling (Portugal and Spain) to the “doing reasonably well” (Germany).

As they say around here, Buon Lavoro, Mario.