Former PM Monti urges Italians to reject Renzi’s referendum
Intervention could reassure moderates who are tempted to side with No campaign
Mario Monti, the former Italian prime minister, delivered an unexpected blow to Matteo Renzi by announcing he would vote against the premier’s flagship constitutional reforms in a high-stakes December referendum.
Mr Monti, a former EU commissioner who led the government at the height of the eurozone debt crisis in 2012, also dismissed concerns that a No vote would plunge the eurozone’s third-largest economy into a new era of political instability and market turmoil.
“The EU never asked for this constitutional change, and it can stay calm. Italy does not risk falling over and crushing the euro, like it did five years ago,” Mr Monti said in an interview with Corriere della Sera, the daily newspaper.
Mr Monti’s intervention could damage Mr Renzi’s campaign by helping to reassure moderate centre-right voters who are tilting towards voting No that such an outcome would not inflict serious economic damage.
Yet he remains a highly unpopular figure in Italy, having pushed through a series of tough austerity measures during his time in office, so the impact of his remarks may be muted.
Mr Monti also used the interview to attack the prime minister’s economic policies, saying they were nothing more than an attempt to use the public purse to generate political consensus.
Italy’s 2017 budget published on Tuesday contained a series of targeted measures designed to stimulate the economy but also boost Mr Renzi’s political standing in key constituencies. Italy is now targeting a deficit to GDP ratio of 2.3 per cent, compared with 1.8 per cent which was previously agreed with the EU, which is raising eyebrows in Brussels.
“I cannot accept the judgment that a partial constitutional change, acquired at such a great cost to the public finances, would be beneficial to Italy’s economic and social growth,” Mr Monti said. “To vote Yes would be to keep Italians dependent on this kind of state welfare,” he added.
Polls show the No camp is slightly ahead in a tight referendum race, with a large number of voters still undecided.
Mr Monti’s intervention was immediately criticised by members of Mr Renzi’s Democratic party (PD). “So Monti is basically voting No in the constitutional referendum because things were better with his blood-and-tears budgets. We need patience,” Alessia Morani, a PD lawmaker wrote on Twitter.
Tensions between Mr Monti and Mr Renzi have been growing, particularly over the prime minister’s tendency to criticise the EU. Mr Monti believes confrontation with Brussels is counterproductive, while also spurring anti-establishment feelings in Italy. “[Renzi] is doing the work of the populists, attacking Europe,” Mr Monti said.
Mr Monti also voted in favour of Mr Renzi’s constitutional reform in 2014 before turning against it.
The rebuke for Mr Renzi stands in stark contrast with the praise and support the prime minister is set to receive on Tuesday in Washington, where he will be hosted by Barack Obama for his last state dinner as US president. Mr Obama has support Mr Renzi’s reformist agenda and embraced him as a key ally in Europe.
The constitutional reform championed by Mr Renzi would sharply limit the legislative powers of the Italian Senate, turning it into a body of regional representatives, in an attempt to reduce gridlock in the political system. It would also hand power over major decisions — for instance on infrastructure spending — back to the central government from the regions.
The proposed changes follow the approval of a controversial electoral law which would hand over a supermajority in the lower chamber of parliament to the winning party, which supporters say would make it easier to govern the country.
But Mr Monti suggested this was all besides the point. “I gradually convinced myself that Italy’s problems don’t depend so much on the constitutional reform or the electoral law, but a few fundamental traits: tax evasion, corruption and a political class that uses the money of tomorrow’s Italians as a barrier against its own unpopularity,” he said.