Why has Italy fallen out of love with the euro?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Italy's economy remains in the doldrums, with many Italians blaming the European single currency. Meanwhile the Italian populist government has taken a markedly more friendly line towards Russia, with a scandal brewing about alleged business deals between Moscow and the ruling Lega party.
Manuela Saragosa speaks to Alessandra Maiorino, an Italian MP for the Five Star Movement and Lorenzo Codogno, economist with the European Institute at the London School of Economics, about growing anti-European sentiment in Italy. And journalist Stafano Vergine explains why prosecutors are now looking into links between Italy's Lega Nord party and Russia.
(Photo: An Italian euro coin; Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuela Saragossa. |
| 0:07.5 | Coming up, how and why Italy fell out of love with the euro. |
| 0:12.0 | Politicians at the time promised everything would be better. |
| 0:15.3 | We would earn more. We would even need to work less. |
| 0:19.0 | The feel is now that not the whole of the truth was said. |
| 0:23.6 | But why is Rome cozing up to Russia? |
| 0:26.6 | If a foreign country, anyone, is giving you $65 million, |
| 0:31.1 | what are they asking for in exchange? |
| 0:33.9 | This is the question that Slovenia should answer it. |
| 0:36.8 | That's coming up here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:43.1 | Back in 2001, Italy was one of the most enthusiastic EU member states to adopt the euro. |
| 0:50.0 | Special adverts heralded the single currency's imminent arrival. |
| 0:57.6 | Music Special adverts heralded the single currency's imminent arrival. The Euro, our currency, the advertisement proudly proclaims. |
| 1:16.3 | Twenty years on, and the enthusiasm has waned somewhat. |
| 1:23.1 | So we're in a shop near the Pantheon, which is one of the major monuments here in Rome, |
| 1:27.5 | and we've come into one of the shops just facing out onto the piazza here. |
| 1:31.4 | Their shop has been here a long time. |
| 1:33.4 | And I'm just going to speak to the man at the till about the euro and the lira. |
| 1:38.4 | What pensed in the euro? |
| 1:39.5 | Is that a thing for Italy? |
| 1:42.8 | Initially, yes, I thought. Is the euro being a good thing for Italy? |
| 1:49.5 | Initially, yes, I thought the euro was a good idea. |
... |
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