Mario Draghi, the man credited with largely saving the euro currency, on Saturday formally took the helm as Italy‘s premier, after crafting a government that …
Mario Draghi, the man credited with largely saving the euro currency, on Saturday formally took the helm as Italy‘s premier, after crafting a government that balances economic experts and other technocrats with career politicians from across the spectrum to guide the pandemic-devastated nation toward recovery. Ending weeks of political crisis, Draghi and his Cabinet ministers took their oaths of office in a ceremony at the Quirinal presidential palace in front of President Sergio Mattarella. It was Mattarella who tasked Draghi, a former chief of the European Central Bank as well as of Italy’s central bank, with trying to form a government up to managing the COVID-19 health, economic and social crises. Perhaps in a sign of Draghi‘s intent to get quickly to work in healing Italy, the swearing-in ceremony began three minutes early. In deference to coronavirus precautions, all participants in the ceremony were masked, and a palace aide provided each minister with a fresh pen to sign their oath. After days of back-and-forth with political leaders, Draghi on Friday evening announced a government deftly balancing economic experts and other technocrats with politicians from parties ranging from left to right.
