Italy’s Choice of Finance Minister Is Critical for Euro
Decision will show whether idealists or pragmatists are setting the course on euro membership.
Idealism or pragmatism?
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/BloombergThe Five Star Movement and the League have put forward Giuseppe Conte as the next prime minister of Italy. The choice of a little-known academic for the country’s top job will naturally raise eyebrows, but it shouldn’t be investors’ chief concern. The identity of the next finance minister will be far more important for the stability of Italy’s economy — and Europe’s.
That’s not to say that the Conte decision, if ratified, is without interest — not least for its delicious irony. For years, Italy’s anti-establishment parties have railed against unelected technocrats, including Mario Monti, an economist and former EU commissioner who led Italy at the height of the sovereign debt crisis. Now they have their shot at power, the League and Five Star plump for an academic who’s never run for parliament.