In the eyes of some, Mario Draghi has a rock-star quality about him. How else to explain the clamour for selfies from MEPs when the European Central Bank president turned up for his last appearance at the European Parliament in January.
Best known for declaring in July 2012 that he would do “whatever it takes” to protect Europe’s single currency, the central banker was in Strasbourg to accept a plaque bearing the words, “To President Mario Draghi for saving the euro”. It represented the start of a farewell tour for the 71-year-old Italian who steps down in October after eight turbulent years in charge, a period during which he changed the DNA of the institution.
The achievement of Europe’s current economic leaders, which include not only Mr Draghi and those in his inner circle but also Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to have kept the eurozone together during the most serious crisis in its 20-year history. To do that meant carrying out root-and-branch reform of how the central bank operates, changing it from an institution built in the mould of Germany’s Bundesbank and obsessed with keeping inflation in check to one more willing to buy insurance against a vicious cycle of market panic and collapsing growth.