Draghi attended an event where he had to play nice

Tuesday evening, the first dinner for correspondents of dForeign Press AssociationInspired by A Ritual Event in American PoliticsOn the evening when the President of the United States gives a speech, it is usually filled with jokes for reporters who follow the White House. The main guest of the event was the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, who spoke after dinner for twenty minutes using in turn more light tones than usual: Draghi opened his speech by saying: “Usually on these occasions in the Prime Minister, it is up to you to make a sarcastic and light speech, a little outside box “. Then he added with a smile: “Well, I started off well, with a former central bank governor.”

Then Draghi joked about someone who underwent a heart transplant and, faced with the choice between the heart of a young man and the heart of an aging central bank governor, chose the latter “because it was never used.” Then Draghi continued: “As they say ‘within my mandate’ I will do whatever is necessary to contribute to the success of this evening, in other words I will be seriously in the service of the foreign press,” citing His rhythmic notes Before the election of the President of the Republic last December, when he said: “I am a man if I am like my grandfather in the service of institutions.”

He then focused on Italy’s successes last summer, from wins in the European Football Championships to gold medals at the Olympics, passing through Matteo Berrettini’s Wimbledon final, and Manskin’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Nobel Prize in Physics won by Giorgio Baresi. Regarding what happened after these great results, Draghi joked: “From that moment on everything went well: Italy did not qualify for the World Cup, we finished sixth in Eurovision, Brittany did not participate in Wimbledon because he took Covid., And let’s say I live in Horror that the Swedish Academy would think about it and contact Paris because they were wrong.”

Among the jokes, Draghi also spoke more seriously about the various domestic and international problems his government faced: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, rising energy costs and rising inflation. In the face of these problems, Draghi said, Italy is proving to be a strong country. “Maybe it is new, but it is a strong country. Our economy is still growing, even if, as they say in Rome, we should not expand too much on this. Because it is badass [di crescita] Higher than the average of the last twenty years, but certainly the risks we face are very serious.”

In the most serious paragraph of his speech, Draghi listed some of the measures the government intends to take — including tax reform, procurement law reform and competition reform — but added: “I’m not making the list. That presidents usually do the board to glorify their business, it’s a very short list » Referring to social reforms and reduced Italian dependence on Russian gas, Draghi explained that the advantage of these results is the “pro-government majority. […] But above all from the Italians ».

The Villa Aurelia event occurred at a difficult political moment for Draghi, who manages Some inner turmoil in the majority Above all because of the leader of the 5-star movement, Giuseppe Conte. At the beginning of the week, his party did not participate in the final vote in the House of Representatives on the so-called “aid decree”, and many commentators interpreted this decision as the first sign of a future government crisis.

On Tuesday afternoon, before dinner with reporters, Draghi held a press conference at Chigi Palace to present some government maneuvers about the cost of living, reiterating the notion he had previously expressed, that only such a majority is possible and who has no intention of accepting another term as president. To Ministers: “There is no government without the Five Star Movement.”