Milan (AFP)

Mario Draghi, the man who is credited with having saved the euro zone in 2012 in the midst of the debt crisis, is now at the bedside of one of its weak links, Italy, from which he took control to get it out of its political and economic crisis.

Its leitmotif?

"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.

For Benoît Coeuré, former member of the ECB's management board, Mario Draghi "has a deep sense of public service and duty".

He has shown "conviction but never arrogance" with regard to policies, he adds.

In eight years, under the leadership of Mr. 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 purchases of market assets and giant loans to banks.

Mario Draghi took over from Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet in November 2011 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 in 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.

And this while he had argued the opposite in his thesis in economics presented in 1970 at the La Sapienza University in Rome, according to his own admission: "I had concluded that the single currency was madness, something that absolutely should not be done ".

- "Count Draghila" -

Its detractors, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, 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".

"When he has decided, it is difficult to make him change his mind," says a relative of Mr. Draghi.

But he also knows how to "show empathy towards individuals and their individual suffering, in particular among young people hit by the crisis", underlines Mr. Coeuré.

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".

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 holds a doctorate in economics from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Professor of economics in 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 will occupy for 10 years under nine governments of left and right. .

- "Liberal socialism" -

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 earned 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 Mr. Draghi became a leading figure 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 ".

© 2021 AFP