Discreet, serious, determined, Mario Draghi was called Tuesday February 2 to the bedside of Italy, his native country mired in a political and economic crisis.

His credo?

"Never give up," he told the press shortly before handing over to Christine Lagarde at the head of the European Central Bank in October 2019, at the end of a hectic mandate, marked by stock market storms and tensions within the institution. 

Asked about any inclinations to descend into the political arena, he then kicked in touch: "I really don't know, I said it several times. Ask my wife, she knows more". 

"Super Mario" 

"Mario Draghi is an extremely well prepared and determined person", commented for AFP Giuliano Noci, professor of strategy at the Polytechnic business school in Milan.

"He would certainly be able to get Italy out of the crisis, with the support of the country and the Parliament."

In eight years, under the leadership of Mario Draghi, the ECB has taken measures that were still unimaginable at the beginnings of the euro 20 years ago: lowering rates to negative territory, injecting liquidity via massive asset purchases. on the markets and giant loans to banks. 

Mario Draghi had succeeded in November 2011 to French Jean-Claude Trichet at the head of the ECB, in a euro zone shaken by the debt crisis. 

From the summer of 2012, he had to deal with a surge in borrowing rates from countries with bloody finances, including Italy and Greece, and the threat of implosion of the monetary bloc. 

Nicknamed "Super Mario", the central banker then improvises a few words during a speech in London.

He says he is "ready for anything" - "whatever it takes" in English - to support the euro zone.

These magic words immediately reassured the markets and generally saved the single currency. 

"Count Draghila" 

Its detractors, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, however denounced an encouragement to over-indebted countries not to reform and deplored the "ruin" of savers because of very low interest rates. 

This policy has earned him to be portrayed by the popular German daily Bild as "Count Draghila", the vampire who "siphons our accounts to the last drop". 

Salt-and-pepper hair, sober suit and tie, aquiline profile, this affable 73-year-old Italian has however always been careful not to defend the South. 

During an international forum last August in Rimini (central Italy), he did not hesitate to point out the limits of the enormous indebtedness of States due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Debt is "bad" if it is used "for unproductive purposes", he insisted. 

Trained among the Jesuits, Mario Draghi is a man renowned for his discretion, his seriousness and his determination, who has little taste for Roman socialites. 

Born in Rome on September 3, 1947, married with two children, Mario Draghi graduated in economics and holds a doctorate from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

"Respected and listened to by all" 

Professor of economics at several Italian universities, he represented his country at the World Bank from 1984 to 1990, before becoming in 1991 Director General of the Italian Treasury, a post he held for 10 years under nine governments, from the left as well as from the right. 

As such, he will be the man-orchestra of the major privatizations carried out from 1996 to 2001. In 2002, he joined the management of the American bank Goldman Sachs.

An experience that still earns him criticism today, the American bank, accused in particular of having disguised the accounts of Greece, symbolizing for many the excesses of Wall Street. 

Recognized banker, he was chosen at the end of 2005 to restore the image of the Bank of Italy, tarnished by his predecessor Antonio Fazio, involved in a banking scandal. 

A term during which Mario Draghi has become a leading personality in Italy. 

In January 2021, a citizens' movement was created to demand that this unclassifiable economist, follower of "liberal socialism" during his youth, "respected and listened to by all and in the whole world", take the reins of the country "to save Italy ". 

With AFP

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