Leaders | Forgotten but not gone

Italy could soon get a hard-right government

Worrying tremors are coming out of Europe’s most indebted economy

IN FEBRUARY WE and many others breathed a sigh of relief after Mario Draghi agreed to become prime minister of Italy. For had not “super Mario” saved the euro, in 2012, with his promise that he, and the European Central Bank he then headed, would do “whatever it takes” to stop the project unravelling? Those three words were enough to calm markets, bringing down interest rates on the debt of the zone’s weaker members. Over the nine years since then, those countries have saved tens of billions of euros thanks to reduced borrowing costs.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Forgotten, but not gone”

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