On April 17, the Mediterranean Program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) hosted a breakfast discussion on the political and economic future of Italy. Senior Transatlantic Fellow, Emiliano Alessandri moderated the conversation with Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, former executive committee member of the European Central Bank and a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Ettore Greco, who is the director of the Italian Institute of International Affairs. The breakfast was attended by 40 people, including representatives from the public, private and academic sectors, as well as many members from the Italian community here in Washington. 

Italy’s general elections in February returned a deeply divided parliament with neither a party nor a traditional coalition of parties able to form a government. Political uncertainty is accompanied by deepening economic and social malaise. Key economic indicators such as unemployment and private spending are worsening, casting shadows on Italy’s economic trajectory even as the state of public finances improves. The panel engaged with this and other important questions, focusing on the way out from the current impasse. Bini Smaghi strongly advocated for the need for structural economic reforms. He also made a clear reference to the need for the Euro to weaken for growth to come back to the Eurozone – a message that he conveyed also to other institutions in Washington and was widely reported by international news agencies. Greco concentrated on political developments, suggesting that a new ‘government of the President’ – patterned after the recent experience of the Mario Monti government – may be the most viable option in the current political context. These opening remarks were followed by a comprehensive and engaging question and answer period that displayed the diversity of perspectives and approaches to the current Italian predicament within the Eurozone crisis. Alessandri offered concluding thoughts and made available the findings of GMF’s recent Mediterranean Strategy Group conference in Lisbon on the ‘Future of Southern Europe’.