Philipp Heimberger, Nikolaus Kowall – Draghi Government: Seven ‘Surprising’ Facts about Italy
Italy – heavily in debt and still unwilling to reform! Over recent weeks, countless articles have again been written about our EU partner country that struck such a tone. In fact, we were rarely able to read anything positive about Italy in the media over the last year. First, the negative health effects of coronavirus hit the country particularly hard during the first phase of the pandemic. Then came the severe economic crisis with discussions about European response packages, during which journalists as well as leading politicians of the self-proclaimed “frugal four” repeatedly questioned whether Italy should really receive grants to a considerable extent to mitigate the consequences of the COVID19 crisis. And then Guiseppe Conte’s government had to step down after former Prime Minister Renzi removed his party’s two ministers from the government, leading to intense discussions about a political crisis in Italy.
Now there is a new Italian government under prime minister Mario Draghi, the former ECB president. This government will not only have to deal with the pandemic, but also with planning the use of around €200 billion from the EU recovery fund for the coming years. In view of these important political projects, it is high time to take a fact-based look at Italy and, in doing so, also dispel some myths that unfortunately continue to be spread regularly by journalists and media.
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