Giorgia Meloni leads the government in Rome.
(Photo: IMAGO/ANP)
Italy is the biggest beneficiary of the Corona reconstruction aid. There are good reasons for this, after all, the country was the first in Europe in which the virus spread in spring 2020 – and forced the state to implement particularly strict and lengthy lockdowns with negative consequences for the economy.
But Italy’s handling of the expected aid money was problematic from the start. Politicians were initially unable to agree on priorities, and in the end even Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government fell over it. His successor Mario Draghi, now history again, declared the issue a top priority.
He had the plan rewritten and Brussels approved it – that was in the summer of 2021. Now the EU has called for improvements and is meticulously examining the plan again before the next tranche is paid out. Rightly so: The fact that the renovation of the stadium of an Italian first division club should be co-financed with EU money is halfway absurd.
On the other hand, the mayor of Florence is rightly asking himself why the EU Commission is only now noticing this. The right-wing government around Giorgia Meloni must now do everything to restore confidence. It must credibly demonstrate how the agreed deadlines for the Corona Fund up to 2026 can be met.
And above all: how to manage to invest the money in such a way that the country, which has been weak in growth and highly indebted for years, will benefit in the long term. This requires more creativity, economic expertise and more staff in the overburdened regions – and less bureaucracy in the offices of the central government.
Otherwise the good reputation that Rome actually built up under Mario Draghi’s government threatens to fade quickly.
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