When Mario Draghi gave the harsh speech to the Italian Senate in July before losing the confidence of the parliamentary majority, one of his ministers ran to hug him. It was Giancarlo Giorgetti, number two in the League, then Minister of Economic Development. A few minutes later, he had to meet with the leader of his party, Matteo Salvini, who would give the orders to overthrow the national unity government of the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB),
Today, Giorgetti has just opened his new office as Minister of Economy, the most important portfolio of Giorgia Meloni's Executive at a critical moment, with inflation skyrocketing, when next year's budgets must be drawn up soon and reforms implemented of the recovery plan.
He was not the first candidate for the position. Meloni preferred a prestigious coach to guarantee credibility with Brussels. His first choice was Fabio Panetta, a member of the executive council of the ECB. He also approached Daniele Franco, Draghi's finance minister, who was not available. In the end, the position fell to Giorgetti, a discreet man who, according to the previous Draghi government, was the Executive's greatest defender and was held in high regard by the latter. "Surely he will do very well," Franco blessed him when his name began to sound for this bag. The pressure was maximum. He considered rejecting it, but the League needed a key ministry, and he accepted for the good of the party.
Born 55 years ago in a small town in the Lombardy region, Giorgetti has devoted his entire life to politics. He is one of the few leaguers who has gone through the entire evolution of the party, from its birth as the separatist dream of Umberto Bossi to the more populist reconversion of Matteo Salvini. He has been a member of the formation since the 1990s, but before that, like Meloni, he had joined the youth of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement. He started out as a councilor in his town, Cazzago Brabbia, of which he was mayor for almost ten years. In 1996, he first won a seat in Parliament, and hasn't left since.
He is remembered for his long presidency of the budget commission –one of the most responsible positions in the Chamber of Deputies– and for being part of the group of ten wise men convened in 2013 by the then President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, a group of experts from the political and academic world to create an economic program around which to form an executive in the face of the political paralysis left by the national elections. He has spent most of his time trading behind the scenes, making powerful allies in the financial and political world. The last of them, Draghi.
Married and with a daughter, he has two great hobbies, fishing and soccer. The first is due to its origins next to Lake Varese, the navel of the old Northern League. He comes from a family of fishermen, and his dream would one day be to retire in his hometown to fish quietly without the calls of Rome. Despite his humble origins, he studied Economics at the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan. Since he was a child, in addition to the local club in his province, he has followed the English team Southampton, which he has supported in the stadium even in matches against Italian clubs. So much so that with his brother they created a fan club. However, English is not his forte. Unlike Salvini, he shuns meetings and interviews. His style is more reserved. He likes to use football metaphors to explain himself: "Without attackers you don't score a goal, but I've always said that I considered myself more of a Pirlo, someone who may not be seen much, but who is important," he said, comparing himself to the midfielder.
If the striker is Salvini, they couldn't get along worse. "Within the League he has become an internal adversary," says the director of the newspaper Il Foglio, Claudio Cerasa. Salvini represents the media soul, he, the interests of businessmen in the north of the country. "He has always said that he wants to bring the League to the European People's Party," says Cerasa. His election as Economy Minister is not only a signal from Meloni to Europe for having chosen a more moderate and quite pro-European profile, but also a way for the League to share responsibilities. If the error is Meloni's, it will also be Giorgetti's. And if Salvini creates trouble, Giorgetti will be the man to stop him.
