Mario Draghi (Italian: [ˈmaːrjo ˈdraːɡi]; born 3 September 1947) is an Italian economist, academic, banker, statesman and civil servant who served as the prime minister of Italy from February 2021 to October 2022. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, he served as President of the European Central Bank (ECB) between 2011 and 2019. Draghi was also Chair of the Financial Stability Board between 2009 and 2011, and Governor of the Bank of Italy between 2006 and 2011.
After a lengthy career as an academic economist in Italy, Draghi worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., throughout the 1980s, and in 1991 returned to Rome to become Director General of the Italian Treasury. He left that role after a decade to join Goldman Sachs, where he remained until his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Italy in 2006. His tenure as Governor coincided with the 2008 Great Recession, and in the midst of this he was selected to become the first Chair of the Financial Stability Board, the global standard-setter that replaced the Financial Stability Forum.
He left those roles after his nomination by the European Council in 2011 to serve as President of the ECB. He presided over the institution during the Eurozone crisis, becoming famous throughout Europe for saying that he would be prepared to do "whatever it takes" to prevent the euro from failing. In 2014, Draghi was listed by Forbes as the eighth-most powerful person in the world. In 2015, Fortune magazine ranked him as the world's "second greatest leader". He is also the only Italian to be listed three times in the Time 100 annual listicle. In 2019, Paul Krugman described him as "the greatest central banker of modern times." Moreover, thanks to his monetary policies, he is widely considered the "saviour of the euro" during the European debt crisis. He has been nicknamed Super Mario by some media, a nickname that was popularised during his time as President of the ECB, when he was credited by numerous sources as having played a key role in combatting the Eurozone crisis.
After Draghi's term as ECB President ended in 2019, he initially returned to private life. On 3 February 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Draghi was invited by President Sergio Mattarella to form a government of national unity (Draghi Cabinet), following the resignation of Giuseppe Conte. After successful negotiations with parties including the League (Lega), the Five Star Movement (M5S), the Democratic Party (PD), and Forza Italia (FI), Draghi was sworn in as prime minister on 11 February, pledging to oversee effective implementation of COVID-19 economic stimulus. Draghi has been rated highly in public opinion polls in Italy during his time as prime minister; at the end of his first year in office Politico Europe ranked him as the most powerful person in Europe and The Economist named Italy as "Country of the Year", singling out Draghi's leadership as central to its nomination.
On 14 July 2022, the M5S revoked support to Draghi's coalition government regarding a decree concerning economic stimulus to offset the energy crisis. On the same day, despite having largely won the confidence vote, Draghi announced his resignation as prime minister, which was rejected by President Mattarella. On 21 July, Draghi resigned for a second time following the failure of the confidence vote to pass with an absolute majority due to the withdrawals of M5S, Lega, and FI. On the same day, President Mattarella accepted the resignation and Draghi remained in office as caretaker prime minister. He was succeeded by Giorgia Meloni on 22 October 2022.
Source : Wikipedia
