Silvio Berlusconi, the European Central Bank and Thomas More

Tuesday, June 16 2011. Silvio Berlusconi's game to assure Mario Draghi post as governor of the ECB is not is not progressing as the Italian prime minister planned.

Sarkozy and Berlusconi

The rules of the game are easy. Mario Draghi – former governor of Banca d'Italia – goes to Frankfurt, and takes his place as governor of the European Central Bank, replacing the Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet. Berlusconi managed to get Sarkozy's endorsement (even though he'd prefer a Frenchman in that post), but – in exchange – the Italian prime minister has to make sure that there be no more than one Italian in the board and France should maintain one, replacing Jean-Claude Trichet.

That means that incumbent European Central Bank Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi must go. Berlusconi had a 10-minute chat with Bini Smaghi, at Palazzo Chigi, the government’s headquarters in Rome, explaining him these very simple directions.

But Italian Silvio's mojo – as most of us already know – is not at his best, and Bini Smaghi has decided to dig in his heels. After the (one-way) discussion with the Italian prime minister, the board member went to the Vatican and “spoke of Thomas More” who “followed his conscience, even at the cost of displeasing the sovereign”. Saint Thomas More is the patron saint of central bankers.

Battling with Thomas More will be a tough task for the declining Silvio.