Mario Monti: “The success of non-mainstream and Eurosceptic parties in May’s European Parliament elections will serve as a powerful wake-up call for the more traditional parties not to play games with European integration.” Photo: Jason Borg

Former Italian prime minister Mario Monti says his government’s successful introduction of some economic reforms were “a little miracle” considering whom he had to rely on for parliamentary support.

Prof. Monti, prime minister of Italy in a government of technocrats from November 2011 to April 2013 formed to tackle Italy’s debt crisis, was speaking to Times of Malta on the fringes of last week’s The Economist Events’ Business Roundtable organised with the government of Malta at the Hilton Hotel.

Asked about how difficult it was having to depend on (former Italian prime minister) Silvio Berlusconi for his parliamentary majority when he was in office, Prof. Monti replied: “Well, it was a subtle relationship, very cordial and very tough at the same time and I consider it really a little miracle that we were able to bring about some of the reforms that Italian politics was never able to deliver, like the major pension reforms, considering that we relied on the support of three parties that, up to the previous day, could hardly speak to each other.”

Prof. Monti described his time in office “like walking on a rope with a very deep empty space beneath, which was the financial crisis, but we managed to overcome it, so everybody must be thanked”.

He says he is confident the new Italian government, led by Matteo Renzi, will be able to turn Italy’s economy around and bring in the necessary reforms, both economic and political.

“Over the last two years, Mr Renzi has been urging structural reforms and stressing the urgency of these reforms, in particular for the labour market, and to improve the competitiveness of the Italian economy. Now that he is in power, I expect and am confident that he will display this same sense of urgency.”

He notes that Mr Renzi has even spoken of one reform a month. “That may be too ambitious” but he expects him and his government to begin to deliver important structural reforms very quickly.

Prof. Monti describes Enrico Letta’s ouster as prime minister by Mr Renzi after only 10 months in office as “a bit strange” but adds that this was brought about by the change in leadership of the centre-left Democratic Party.

“Mr Renzi decided he wanted to impose a greater rhythm of change and decided to step in. Expectations about Mr Renzi are now quite high,” he notes.

In the first 10 months of last year, Prof. Monti led Civic Choice, a centrist political party he formed, which was part of the Letta government and is now part of the Renzi government. He explains that he resigned the party leadership because he never thought he should remain “in active politics forever” and wanted to hand over to younger politicians.

He again takes a swipe at Mr Berlusconi: “I accepted the challenge of contesting the election in February 2013 with a new party oriented towards Europe, towards reforms. That party got enough votes to prevent the comeback of the centre-right, which, in the meantime, had become populist and rather anti-European.”

My time in office was like walking on a rope with a very deep empty space beneath

He praises his Maltese counterpart when he was prime minister, Lawrence Gonzi, saying he “was a very active contributor to the European Council discussions”.

Prof. Monti says he was very positively impressed by the way Dr Gonzi chaired the 5+5 meeting in Malta in 2012, adding: “My French and Spanish colleagues were tempted to excuse themselves from the meeting because of their heavy agenda but I personally insisted on them participating and it was a very productive meeting under the chair of Prime Minister Gonzi.”

He believes the worst aspects of the eurozone’s problems are firmly behind us and that what is most encouraging is that Europe has been able to learn its lessons and improve the way the eurozone is governed.

Asked why Italy traditionally doesn’t play more of a leadership role in Europe, Prof. Monti replies: “My experience during my time in government was that, as soon as our partners saw that we were tackling the financial crisis head on and removed Italy from the list of the possible destroyers of the eurozone, we were immediately listened to with great respect and it was possible in a space of six months to make a shift from being the main risk in the eurozone to one of the main contributors of ideas at the European Council.”

He says it was his government that engineered the accord “after difficult negotiations” in June 2012 whereby the eurozone agreed to stabilise the government bond markets.

“That was the political basis which allowed the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, a few weeks later, to state that the ECB will do whatever it takes to stabilise the eurozone”.

He believes France needs to go a bit further in terms of structural reforms and budgetary discipline and this will increase its authority within the EU. “I think Germany likes to have other solid countries around it with which to work,” he adds.

Prof. Monti believes the EU has to work hard to build three bridges, namely between the EU and its citizens, between the north and the south, “particularly in the eurozone because we’ve seen so many misgivings, misunderstandings and mutual suspicions” and between the eurozone and non-eurozone “and, in particular, between the EU and the UK”.

A former European Commissioner, he believes that the “non-mainstream” and Eurosceptic parties will be relatively successful in May’s European Parliament elections.

This, he says, will serve as a “powerful wake-up call” for the more traditional parties not to play games with European integration.

“In particular, to stop the game they sometimes play of blaming Brussels simply because, in Brussels, together they take decisions they know are needed but then go back home and begin castigating those decisions,” he says.