Italy’s Populists Aren’t the Only Ones to Blame
Di Maio and Salvini have provoked Brussels, but the country has lived with an enormous public debt for more than two decades with little consequence.
The EU has been cutting Italy financial slack for 20 years, so don't be surprised the country’s voters took a gamble on the free-spending populists.
Photographer: Giulio Napolitano/BloombergThe fight between Italy and Brussels over Rome’s budget is blamed widely on Italy’s populist leaders, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio. The two deputy prime ministers have insisted that Rome should run much higher budget deficits over the next three years, in a bid to fulfill their electoral pledges and kick-start growth.
A different government would almost certainly have sought a compromise with the European Commission to avoid the risk of a so-called “excessive deficit procedure,” which might lead to financial sanctions. But Italy’s problems didn’t start this year. The country has lived with an enormous public debt for more than two decades. In a sense, it’s more surprising that several successive Italian governments managed to avoid a confrontation with the rest of the EU.