The Corriere della Sera newspaper, in an analysis today, asks why “Greece and Portugal have a better economic performance than Italy, Germany and France.”

In the lengthy article, it is highlighted that “today, the yield on Greek government bonds is three points lower than France’s, and eighteen points lower than Italy’s”, while “France, Italy and Spain are, today, considered less safe not only than Spain, Portugal and Ireland, but also than what used to be the weak link in the group, namely Greece”.

At the same time, the analysis highlights that while a well-known French supermarket chain decided to leave Italy, it recently returned to Greece.

According to Corriere, “the Troika is responsible for many mistakes made, mainly in Brussels and Berlin”. “Too much hesitation, too much austerity but, above all, a misreading of the crisis, which put all the blame on the countries affected by it, and not on the imperfect architecture of the euro,” the Italian newspaper notes.

It asks “why the countries that have suffered a humiliating and clumsy intervention in their sovereignty are now performing better economically than those that imposed the various conditions”, recalling that in the twelve months up to March Germany had zero growth, France 0.6% and Italy 0.7%, while Portugal grew by 1.6%, Greece by 2.2% and Spain by 2.8%.

As the Corriere underlines, “It may also be an increase linked to an international tourism that could also suddenly decline, but it is not growth “doped” by the deficit” because “Ireland, Greece and Portugal are currently producing a surplus, Spain has halved its deficit about its GDP, while Italy, France are recording a deterioration in the balance”. At the same time, it is recalled that public debt has also fallen significantly in Greece and Portugal over the last decade, and quite a bit in Spain.

The article mentions that Greek society, however, remains weak and impoverished, with an almost exclusive dependence on tourism and shipowners, while the country has not yet returned to pre-crisis economic production and more than a quarter of the population – as in Spain – lives near or below the poverty line.

“The countries that have drunk the bitter medicine of the Troika, however, seem to be less threatened – for the moment – by the disorganised, anti-Western and anti-European populism that has characterised the West in recent years,” the Milanese daily writes. It also notes that, as far as the digitalisation of the public sector is concerned, Italy, France and Germany have taken steps backwards, while Spain, Portugal and Greece have made progress.

Meanwhile, analyst Federico Fubini believes that in the countries affected by the financial crisis “there has been a certain renewal in the state apparatus”, while, referring to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he underlines:

“He comes from one of the great families of the country, but he got a degree in business administration at Harvard, a master’s degree at Stanford and acquired a working method at McKinsey before he came to power at the age of 51.” “And Spanish Finance Minister Carlos Cuirpo, who studied at the London School of Economics, has a PhD in his area of responsibility and took office at 42. Before him, Nadia Calvigno had reached the same position at 50, after international studies in economics and a top-level career in the European institutions,” the Italian capital’s daily added.

“When have we ever seen something similar in a government of politicians in Italy, France or Germany? Where the groups of decision-makers are closed or consolidated, those who rise and remain in power for decades have necessarily practiced only one skill to survive and prevail: managing to navigate, within closed and consolidated groups of decision-makers. Where these groups are open – or were opened after an explosion, such as the euro crisis – what counts is what you studied and what you know how to do. The difference, in the end, shows,” Corriere della Sera concludes.