Who is italian prime minister

Nevertheless, "it is difficult to overstate the scale of the challenges that Draghi and Italy face", said Luigi Scazzieri of the Centre for European Reform. The Covid shutdown and waves of subsequent restrictions caused the economy to shrink by a staggering 8. The virus remains rife and Conte's cabinet, in one of its last acts, tightened curbs in four regions and extended a ban on travelling between regions.

Like other European Union countries, Italy has also fallen behind in its vaccination programme, blaming delivery delays. But disputes over how to spend the money, between demands for longstanding structural reform and short-term stimulus, brought down the previous government.

Draghi's job looks easier than that faced by previous technocrat prime ministers, such as Mario Monti in , who turned to severe, unpopular austerity measures during the debt crisis. Italy is due to return to the polls in two years time, but it is far from certain that Draghi will be able to survive that long at the head of a coalition that includes parties with radically opposing views on issues such as immigration, justice, infrastructure development and welfare.

Highlighting Italy's political instability, Draghi's government is the 67th to take office since and the seventh in the last decade alone. In recent years 5-Star has gradually abandoned its anti-establishment roots and moved towards the centre-left political mainstream. Subscribe for our daily curated newsletter to receive the latest exclusive Reuters coverage delivered to your inbox. More from Reuters.

Search the FT Search. World Show more World. US Show more US. Companies Show more Companies. Markets Show more Markets. Opinion Show more Opinion. Mario Draghi's main priority will be how to rebuild the economy after the pandemic. You might also be interested in:. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

A month into Italy's strict lockdown, some people can no longer afford to buy food. Related Topics. Published 12 February.