“When they paint you as Attila the Hun, you might reassure people simply by being Giorgia Meloni.”
Though she takes a gentler approach to disarming critics than the fifth century despot, she has been swift to set the agenda in Europe. She’s won round a skeptical Joe Biden and earned the grudging respect of Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron.
After a benign period where the country’s had great success wooing bond investors, a mounting debt pile more reminiscent of the bad-old-days is threatening to cause ructions.
The European Commission is poised to declare the country to be in breach of bloc-wide spending rules, turning the spotlight on its dysfunctional economy.
Officials unveiled a deteriorating fiscal outlook in April, when they acknowledged the trajectory for Italy’s debt had shifted to one where borrowing will rise for years to come. The IMF now reckons that Italy’s debt pile will breach 140% of output as soon as next year, while it sees that ratio in the wider euro zone falling slightly to 88.3%.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend the G-7 talks at a resort overlooking the Adriatic Sea. She and Meloni have forged an unlikely friendship, with Von der Leyen, who remains well placed to retain the presidency, signaling in advance of the elections her openness to formalizing a partnership with parts of Meloni’s bloc.
Bloomberg 12 June 2024
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