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21 June 2019

A 'standing ovation' of European leaders for Mario Draghi at his (probable) last Eurosummit: as if to prove that the president of the ECB, at the end of the mandate at the end of October, risks being a 'bulky father' for his successor. And that, for the moment, European leaders look back to the last eight years of Draghi's leadership under which the ECB has taken on the burden of ensuring the euro, rather than forward, by dissolving the crux of the new appointments.

The reconstructions say that the heads of state and of government gathered in Brussels have warmly welcomed the arrival of the Italian at the head of the ECB since 2011. Many have taken the floor to praise his work, from the Italian premier Giuseppe Conte to the president French Emmanuel Macron to that of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker. And at the end of his speech, they stood up for a long standing applause, after Draghi greeted his last summit in Brussels.

"He received everyone's applause at the Eurosummit and this made me very proud as an Italian", Conte later said. Handshakes, pats on the back, Draghi pauses to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron (who will say: "I want to pay tribute to the action and courage of Mario Draghi" remembering "a summer day in 2012, when he said those words 'whatever it takes' and that is still bright ").

Handshakes a little with everyone, with Juncker, with the Spanish premier Sanchez and the Portuguese Antonio Costa. There is that phrase, dramatically famous in the memories, which will materialize with a measure called 'Omt', then never activated, which puts in place the unlimited resources of the central bank. There is quantitative easing (2015) that Draghi, just this week in Lisbon, said he could reactivate if the economy does not improve. There is curiosity about that release in Lisbon that galvanized the markets and evoked a new rate cut. And there is the attack of Donald Trump, who has accused Draghi, tearing up all diplomacy, of driving the euro downwards. Overall, a leadership that the ECB found itself having to wear instead of a recalcitrant policy.