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'Super' Mario Monti tipped to replace Berlusconi
Sober eurocrat has little in common with Berlusconi, but could save his businesses
MARIO MONTI, a former EU commissioner nicknamed 'Super Mario', is almost certain to take over from Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister of Italy, and could pick up the reins as soon as this weekend. The sober technocrat is, like Berlusconi, a member of the PDL party and comes from the Lombardy region, but that is where the similarity ends.
While the outgoing PM's fondness for the high life, crude jokes and young girls is well documented, Monti is seen as a safe pair of hands. In short, he’s the ideal candidate to lead a new unity government that will have to implement severe austerity measures.
The Italian press have even been moved to describe him as 'Anglo-Saxon' in his approach. Corriere della Sera said his manners made him almost British and painted him as a "rigorous custodian" of the public interest.
The 68-year-old economist, who is ardently pro-euro, had an impeccable record at the EU between 1995 and 2004 where he earned the nickname Super Mario by taking on Bill Gates and Microsoft over competition guidelines.
Monti was educated at Milan's Bocconi University, where he studied economics and management. He then moved to Yale, where he was taught by James Tobin, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who gave his name to the Tobin Tax.
As an economist he taught at the University of Turin, before returning to Bocconi. He became president of the university in 1994, and is also president of Bruegel, a European think tank he established in 2005.
On Thursday, Berlusconi wished Monti well "in working in the interests of the country". As The Times points out, the departing PM needs an economic recovery as much as anyone. He has reportedly been urged by those who run his TV and newspaper empire to "back Mr Monti to save his own company, whose shares fell so fast that they had to be suspended on Wednesday".
If and when Monti does take over, the media will have to get used to ‘Super Marios’. Fellow Italian Mario Draghi, who goes by the same epithet, has just taken over as head of the European Central Bank. ·
