Rome (AFP)

The new Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called on Wednesday to "rebuild" the country hit hard by the health and economic crisis, promising to "fight the pandemic by all means".

"Like the governments of the immediate post-war period, we have a responsibility to launch a New Reconstruction," he said when presenting his program to Parliament.

"This is our mission as Italians: to leave a better and more just country for our children and grandchildren", he added.

Mr. Draghi, a very discreet 73-year-old man educated in the Jesuits, succeeded Giuseppe Conte on Saturday, forced to resign after the explosion of his coalition, as Italy approaches the 100,000 mark due to Covid and recorded one of the worst GDP drops in the euro zone in 2020 (-8.9%).

The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) also pleaded for a "more integrated European Union which will result in a common public budget, capable of supporting member states during periods of recession", while proclaiming "l 'irreversibility of the choice of the euro ".

"Without Italy, there is no Europe," said Mario Draghi, who heads a motley coalition going from the left to the far right of the sovereignist tribune Matteo Salvini.

He also affirmed his desire to "strengthen" "strategic" relations with France and Germany.

The third largest economy in the area, which lost 444,000 jobs in 2020, relies heavily on the windfall of the European recovery plan, the payment of which is linked to the presentation in Brussels by the end of April of a detailed expenditure plan, one of the missions of the new government.

- "Fragile balance" -

"We will have at our disposal around 210 billion euros over a six-year period. These resources will have to be spent to improve the growth potential of our economy," Draghi stressed during his three-quarter speech. hour, citing as priorities "renewable energies, the fight against air and water pollution, the high-speed train (...), the production and distribution of hydrogen, digitization and 5G" .

The Senate is due to vote on its program by a vote of confidence Wednesday evening, while the Chamber of Deputies will vote on Thursday.

He should easily get the green light from both chambers, as his parliamentary majority is large.

During a second intervention in the evening, Mr. Draghi pleaded for a compulsory distribution of migrants between the various countries of the EU.

"Italy, also supported by certain Mediterranean countries, is proposing as a concrete measure of solidarity a mechanism for the compulsory redistribution of migrants," he said.

Faced with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants, Rome has for years been asking for the renegotiation of the European Dublin regulation, which entrusts the processing of asylum requests to the country of arrival.

Since the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella appealed to him on February 3, Mario Draghi has formed a majority ranging from the Democratic Party (PD, center left) to the far-right League of Matteo Salvini via Movement 5 Stars (M5S, anti-system until he came to power).

"Today unity is not an option, unity is a duty", hammered Mr. Draghi, while the beginnings of his government were marked by a virulent controversy against the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza , which announced on Sunday evening only the ban on reopening the ski slopes on Monday morning.

These first bickering bode well for Mario Draghi as Teresa Coratella, analyst at the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR), explains in an interview with AFP: "We have a very strong government from the point of view of the competence of the ministers, but with a very fragile political balance, with political interlocutors who change their opinion and are not very reliable ".

© 2021 AFP