Spain and Italy have at the moment a feature in common which is not a small thing. We are talking about a high share of social displeasure. 74% of Spaniards declare themselves dissatisfied with the political and economic situation in their country with nine months to go until the end of the legislature. And 71% of Italians share the same pessimism, five months after having opened a legislature with an Executive headed by a political force (the post-fascist right) that had never governed. Spain and Italy have not yet recovered from the wounds and bruises of the last economic crisis.
Only 24% of Italians declare themselves optimistic. The optimistic Spaniards are 26%. (The average political optimism in the European Union is currently 28%). Inside this apparently funereal picture, 69% of Italians and Spaniards say they are very or fairly happy, in perfect agreement with the European average. Public discomforts, private satisfactions.
These are data from Ipsos Italia, the most important polling company in the neighboring country, presented by political scientist Nando Pagnoncelli last Thursday at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, during the 19th Italy-Spain Forum that has just taken place under directed by Enrico Letta and Josep Antoni Duran Lleida. The Christian Democratic School launched these meetings in 1999 as a civil initiative to support relations between the two countries, relations that are far more complex than one might assume. There are no major disputes, but there are many sidelong glances.
Italy continues to practice catenaccio in its internal market and does everything possible so that foreign capitals do not occupy strategic positions, as the French and Germans know very well. It is unthinkable to imagine that Spanish companies could have the interesting position of Italian capital in Spain today: two television channels (Telecinco and Cuatro), a newspaper intensely dedicated to political combat (El Mundo), an economic newspaper (Expansió n), an important energy company (Endesa, owned by Enel, public electricity company) and a business bank (Mediobanca). Italy influences more than the other way around.
There are Italian politicians who are vocationally in favor of a greater understanding with Spain on the southern European flank. Romano Prodi and Enrico Letta are two unequivocal exponents of this line of cooperation. Giuseppe Conte allowed himself to be helped by Pedro Sánchez in the negotiation of the European funds in July 2020. On the contrary, other recent leaders, such as Matteo Renzi, Mario Monti and Mario Draghi, have had as their absolute priority the third place in the European podium and the direct route with Berlin, Paris and Washington, and they have clearly distrusted Spain. Giorgia Meloni, prime minister for five months, with serious communication problems with Paris at the moment, is still a question mark. In the electoral campaign, his Spanish party of reference is Vox. The ideological antagonism with Sánchez could, however, lead to hasty conclusions.
Spain has just received a third disbursement of European funds (6,000 million) and to Italy the payment of 19,000 million has been temporarily suspended due to problems in its reconstruction plan. Meloni needs to open doors and Sánchez wants to shine in Europe in the coming months. Tomorrow they meet in Rome.
