Tristan Stewart-Robertson: ‘Super Mario’ is ready to carry out role without personal objectives

IF MARIO Monti does ascend, as expected, to become Italy’s new prime minister, he will make for a stark contrast to his predecessor.

Gone are the colourful days of Silvio Berlusconi’s crooning, allegations of corruption and scandals over his relationships with women. And in comes economist and former 1990s European commissioner Mr Monti, known for his high-profile stands against US corporate giants General Electric and Microsoft.

Where Mr Berlusconi was dubbed by an Italian newspaper recently as “The Great Seducer”, Monti took the titles of “The Italian Prussian” and “Super Mario” from his Competition Commissioner days.

Born in Varese, Lombardy, 55km north of Milan in 1943, Mr Monti taught economics at the University of Turin from 1970 to 1985, before moving to Bocconi University, where he has been rector and is now president.

During Mr Berlusconi’s first government in 1994, Mr Monti was appointed to the European Commission and in 1999 he rose to competition commissioner. He blocked GE’s planned merger with rival Honeywell and imposed a record €497 million anti-trust fine against Microsoft.

One former ambassador said: “He didn’t have a very Italian way of going about things.”

The Italian press have described Mr Monti as a safe pair of hands. La Repubblica said he was “one of the most Anglo-Saxon of Italy’s public figures, in the sense of his aplomb, his style and his composure”. Corriere della Sera said he was “not a cold technocrat, but a passionate Italian, ready to carry out the civil servant role without personal objectives”.

Mr Monti, who has backed a more closely integrated eurozone, recently criticised policy failures by the Berlusconi government. He is chairman of the European branch of the Trilateral Commission, a body that brings together the power elites of the US, Europe and Japan. On Friday, Mr Monti was sworn in as a “senator for life”.