Politics is the art of the possible. You know. But sometimes we reach previously unseen peaks. Giuseppe Conte, who passed from a government with the League to one with the Democratic Party without extreme ease, today offers another master move: “I will not vote for the ESM”. Precisely he who, as Prime Minister, at the “expiry” of his second mandate at Palazzo Chigi, committed Italy to accepting the changes to the European Stability Mechanism, this time he backs down, as if he had always been against a reform of the treaty which would place our country under more stringent control of public finances. It was November 30, 2020, when the Italian government, with Conte at the head, reached a first agreement within the Eurogroup. This was confirmed by Luigi Di Maio, then Grillino Foreign Minister, last night in Piazzapulita.
The current EU envoy to the Persian Gulf showed the documents with which the accession was prepared which should have been formalized on 27 January through the Italian permanent representative to the EU. Di Maio also showed an “information note”, dated December 10, which confirmed all this. It is true that the M5S was not at all convinced. At the time there were 58 five-star parliamentarians who sent a letter to the leaders of the Movement asking them to reconsider. The practice, however, continued. Di Maio does all this to demonstrate that he did not “act under the cover of darkness”, as Giorgia Meloni accused him in the Senate. The fact remains that the government of the time acted without any parliamentary mandate, also because a vote to this effect would almost certainly not have passed. However, the political fact remains. Conte and Di Maio gave the government’s approval to the new ESM between 2020 and 2021. Today, the Conte himself makes it known that he will never approve of it. In an interview with Il Foglio he says with conviction: «Meloni will vote for the ESM. With the Democratic Party, Italia viva and Forza Italia.”
At the moment, however, there is no question of voting for him. In the Chamber the examination of the ESM was scheduled for yesterday, even if as a third point. The conference of Montecitorio group leaders has decided to postpone it to next week (but at the end of the other measures, therefore with the concrete possibility that it will be postponed further). «In reality it was clear to everyone that there would not be time to do it and that it was therefore only an abstract hypothesis. All the opposition group leaders knew it, they knew that there would be no discussion, it’s true that they had taken note of it”, explained the minister for relations with Parliament Luca Ciriani. He’ll talk about it again in the new year.
