Italy’s new prime minister upends the country’s political parties
The leader of the Democrats quits
IN THE DAYS when Italy’s former prime minister, Matteo Renzi, saw himself as an instrument of creative destruction, he revelled in the nickname il rottamatore, the Demolition Man. Today, that title is more applicable to Mario Draghi, the technocrat Mr Renzi boasts of manoeuvring into the premiership. Restrained and courteous, Mr Draghi is an unlikely wrecker. Yet his arrival has so far split the biggest party in parliament, the Five Star Movement (M5S), and pitched the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) into leaderless disarray.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Demolition Draghi”
Europe March 13th 2021
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