Draghi's capitalist model that restructured Italy is running aground

Unlike those privatisations, the current expansion isn't matched by a coherent vision beyond fighting the coronavirus crisis, an omission that is straining the governing coalition.

On June 2, 1992, Italy’s then-chief Treasury official, Mario Draghi, stepped aboard Queen Elizabeth II’s yacht, Britannia, docked near Rome, to ask a group of British bankers for help in slimming down the country’s bloated public sector.

Almost three decades later, and a year since he left as European Central Bank president, what became one of the region’s biggest privatisation programs is now in reverse. Companies from the wave of selloffs Draghi inaugurated that day to promote growth and reduce debt, such as toll-road operator Autostrade, are being clawed back in a new era of state intervention.

Unlike those privatisations,