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ECB’s Visco Not Currently Exiting as Draghi Revamp Rumors Swirl
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Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco isn’t currently planning to step down, a spokeswoman said in response to a newspaper report that Premier Mario Draghi will replace him and others in key positions ahead of elections next year.
Newspaper Il Foglio had reported Visco would leave his post a year early in October, paving the way for the appointment of a high profile executive close to the government. European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta is a likely candidate, the newspaper said citing sources close to the matter.
The logic of a quicker Bank of Italy succession would allow for Draghi to appoint as many people as possible while he remains in government, instituting a backbone of technocrats in key positions to protect the country against populist influences in a future government.
Other jobs that could be filled now include state companies such as Eni SpA, Enel SpA, Leonardo SpA, and the Tax Revenue agency, the newspaper said. It referred to the plan as “Operation Bolts” -- referring to the nuts and bolts that hold a frame together.
Such a push would take place against the backdrop of increasing political turmoil buffeting Draghi’s broad coalition, and the prospect of an election due in the first half of next year at the latest.
The country has also recently scraped through bond-market turbulence that prompted the ECB to step in and promise future support.
Visco’s Choice
Prime Minister Draghi dismissed the rumors at a press conference after the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Elmau, Germany.
“I don’t know absolutely anything about it,” the former ECB president said responding to a journalist’s question. “The governor will decide when he wants. It’s always been like that.”
Draghi’s government has just survived a dispute over sending military aid to Ukraine that led to the split of the Five Star Movement. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio quit the party, which opposed sending weapons to Kyiv, to found his own movement.
The 72-year-old Visco, a former chief economist at the OECD, is currently on his second six-year term and is the longest-serving member of the ECB Governing Council after Klaas Knot of the Netherlands.
Speculation swirling over his early exit would be only the newest twist in a career punctuated by moments of high suspense.
His original nomination in 2011 by then-premier Silvio Berlusconi was a major surprise, pipping other candidates to the post including then ECB Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi. His reappointment in 2017 also only took effect at the last moment amid a political ambush criticizing his record.
If Panetta were to succeed him, it would mark the first time that the Bank of Italy leadership has been filled by an official who has previously served in the top echelon of the ECB.
(Updates with Draghi comment starting in seventh paragraph)
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