Low-key 'fixer' Giorgetti named Italy's economy minister

Giancarlo Giorgetti is an experienced political wheeler-dealer who is regarded as a moderate member of the League party and relatively pro-European.

Giorgetti was a low-key counterweight for the party's eurosceptic leader Matteo Salvini. He has spent 26 years in parliament working behind the scenes to negotiate on behalf of others and make influential friends in finance including the outgoing premier Mario Draghi.

However, Draghi, 55, was not the first choice for a job. He told Reuters that despite his experience as an industry minister in Draghi’s previous government, he wasn’t sure he was up to the task.

Prime Minister-designate Giorgia Maloni will be heading a potentially volatile coalition of right-wing parties. He offered the position to Fabio Panetta, a member of the European Central Bank board, but she declined.

Medley Advisors' eurozone analyst Tim Jones said that Giorgetti, a long-time League fixer, was a better fit.

Jones stated that although parts of the market might initially be hesitant about the League badge, after twenty years of failure under technocratic economy ministers it's time for a politician "to give it a try."

Giorgetti inherits an economy that is chronically weak, according to the Treasury. It is currently in recession due to record-high inflation levels and rising energy costs.

Although he may not have the same economic training as Panetta, he has other strengths that will help him succeed. Giorgetti was the head of the lower house budget committee for 10 years, from 2001 to 2013. His knowledge of Rome's legislative process is second-to-none. His renowned networking skills also extend beyond politics and business to Italy’s powerful Roman Catholic Church, according to politicians who have been in contact with him.

Andrea Crippa, a League lawmaker, stated that "He has been able to build relationships in sectors where the League is viewed with suspicion and where it has gained a lot of credibility."

TOUGH TASK

Giorgetti communicates in gruff monosyllables, and unlike his predecessors in this role, he does not speak much English. Giorgetti is well-known for minimizing his importance and giving away very little.

He said that he didn't know if he could be made economy minister last week, just hours before Meloni backed his nomination. "I don't know whether I would be able be economy minister."

He will need to maintain the right-wing coalition’s tax-cutting promises in the face of a grim economic backdrop. This will not mean increasing Italy's massive public debt, which amounts to approximately 150% of its national output.

Giorgetti's admirers praise his mediating skills, contacts and experience, but his detractors, including some within the League, claim he lacks political convictions, and could just as easily operate in any other party.

Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, was facing a mounting debt crisis in Italy in 2011. He enlisted Giorgetti's assistance to ensure that parliament frontloaded spending cuts. The constitution also included a balanced budget requirement.

They have been close friends and Giorgetti, despite Salvini's opposition, backed Draghi in January's unsuccessful bid to be president.

He was the industry minister and helped to block several Chinese takeover bids for strategic sectors of Italy’s economy.

POST-FASCIST TO THE NORTHERN LOAGUE

Giorgetti was born in a small village near the Swiss border. He studied business economics and became an accountant. He joined the post-fascist Italian Social Movement's youth arm in the 1980s, which he shares with Meloni.

He switched to the Northern League in the mid-1990s, which was the precursor to today's League. From 2002 to 2012, he headed operations in Lombardy.

When Umberto Bossi, the party founder, was defeated by Roberto Maroni (2012), he remained in a senior position. Salvini succeeded Maroni one year later. He transformed the League into an anti-immigrant party that is more national and has dropped "Northern" out of its name.

Giorgetti has been a friend of the Lombard League for over ten years.

Sources say that he supported Maroni after Bossi was gotten rid of, and he backed Salvini after he got rid Maroni. Then he backed Draghi, who undercut Salvini," the source said, not naming him.

It is telling that when Meloni proposed Giorgetti to be the economy minister, Salvini stated that he should not be considered part of the League's ministers quota.

Giorgetti is a supporter of the unglamorous English soccer club Southampton. He likes to use sports analogies to summarize his behind-the scenes political style.

He stated that everyone wants to score goals and be a striker, but people need to be there to support the midfield. This is what he said to Panorama in 2018, a weekly news magazine.

Giorgetti, the most important minister of Meloni's cabinet will now have to set some goals.

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