(ANSA) - The government was under mounting pressure on Tuesday to decide on a replacement for former Bank of Italy governor Antonio Fazio, who resigned last week in the wake of probes on banking takeover scandals.
Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione told reporters he hoped a decision would be taken on Thursday, when the cabinet holds its end-of-year meeting. "We must hurry because the situation will get more complicated the longer we delay," said Buttiglione, referring to criticism of some of the leading candidates.
"I saw that as soon as (former Treasury Director General Mario) Draghi's name came up, he was immediately put through the wringer by some nitpicking economy professors," said Buttiglione.
Sandro Bondi, coordinator of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said an appointment this week would "be a positive signal to the markets, the European Union as well as the country" that Italy has put the banking scandal behind it.
Among the other possible names that are being tossed up are those of former European Central Bank board member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, former European commissioner Mario Monti, Treasury Director-General Vittorio Grilli. Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Vincenzo Desario, appointed by the bank's Council last week to take over Fazio's duties on a temporary basis, is already out of the running, pundits said.
But in a letter sent to Berlusconi during the holiday weekend, Monti withdrew from the race, saying the governor's job was not "on his agenda." Meanwhile, there was still no official confirmation of reports that Berlusconi and opposition leader Romano Prodi had discussed the list of candidates in a phone conversation. Prodi said last week that the centre left was ready to cooperate with the government on the issue, stressing that it was essential to find a top-level replacement "to restore the central bank's international credibility".
"It's essential that the person chosen be top ranking, someone technically indisputable and respected abroad," said Prodi.
Prodi and many centre-left MPs have made it known they would back Draghi and press reports on Tuesday indicated he was the number one candidate. The issue heated up after the head of the powerful Industrial employers' federation Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said in a press interview on Tuesday that a speedy decision was essential.
Montezemolo also called for a bipartisan agreement on Fazio's replacement, saying the appointment "should not be subject to political vetoes ...to avoid futher damage to our credibility on the international markets." The industrial leader, who also heads Ferrari and Fiat, said Fazio's resignation had been long overdue and accused both political blocs of dragging their heels on the banking scandals.
Referring to these scandals, Berlusconi on Friday dismissed suggestions that the country was heading for a new round of corruption probes which would overturn the political scene as happened in the early 1990s. "I'm fully convinced of the solidity, health and ethics of the banking system," he told an end-of-year news conference.
The new head of the Bank of Italy will now no longer have an open-ended mandate but be given a six-year term which can only be renewed once. The central bank will now share watchdog responsibilites on mergers and acquisitions with the antitrust authority while stock market regulator Consob will have greater powers in combating fraud, through tighter regulations on companies issuing bonds.
