MILAN (AP) — The man tapped to be Italy's next premier earned the moniker
"Super Mario" in the halls of the European Commission, stopping such corporate
giants as Jack Welch and Bill Gates in their competitive tracks.
Elegantly attired with a formal demeanor, Mario Monti proved his mettle as a
tough negotiator when he blocked the merger of General Electric and Honeywell
and levied a euro500 million fine against Microsoft for abusing its dominant
position.
"He moves with caution and speaks with nuances. But he moves," said Carlo
Guarnieri, a political scientist at the University of Bologna.
A leading economist, Monti is among the most respected men in the country and
the most admired Italians
in Europe.
That will be no guarantee for success in the Herculean task before him:
building a majority large enough to push painful structural reforms through a
fractured Parliament to prevent Italy from being dragged into the burgeoning
debt crisis.
