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Good morning. Today, our Rome reporter has a dispatch from Giorgia Meloni’s annual gathering of the Italian far right and the global political pot pourri, and our competition colleagues send a dispatch on the telecoms industry’s deep-seated anger at the European Commission.
Have a great weekend.
Gladiators
In ancient Rome, the Circus Maximus used to host popular chariot races attended by thousands of people. This week, the site of the gigantic arena in the heart of the Italian capital plays host to a different kind of event: Atreju, the political festival organised each year by the rightwing party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, writes Giuliana Ricozzi.
Context: The first edition of Atreju — which takes its name from the hero of fantasy book The Neverending Story — dates back to 1998, when Meloni was a prominent youth activist with the successor to the neo-fascist party founded by surviving loyalists of dictator Benito Mussolini.
Once a weird and marginal jamboree that barely registered with the political jet-set, Atreju has recently attracted more and more mainstream politicians and international stars in tandem with Meloni’s own ascent.
Billionaire Elon Musk, former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, Hungary’s premier Viktor Orbán, and Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon have attended the event in recent years, a reflection of Meloni’s growing influence beyond Italy’s borders.
Renowned for its quirkiness and informal atmosphere, the festival is an occasion for outreach, networking and debates, even involving Italian leftwing politicians.
The title of this year’s festival is “The Italian Way — Concrete Responses to a Changing World”, a hint at the road traced by Meloni so far and at her approach in addressing domestic and international issues.
Among the guests this weekend will be Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. The interior ministers of Italy and the UK will join a panel to discuss migration. Marine Le Pen’s niece Marion Maréchal will also attend the festival.
But heavy political debates aren’t the only thing on offer. A Christmas village, with a huge tree, illuminated decorations, a skating rink and ping-pong tables offer respite for those seeking a break from the political wrangling.
Chart du jour: Cut
The European Central Bank cut interest rates to 3 per cent, as it watered down its hawkish language and warned that growth would be weaker than it had previously forecast.
We don’t need no regulation
Chief executives of some of Europe’s largest telecoms operators have called for sweeping changes to reduce red tape and allow consolidation to boost competitiveness, write Javier Espinoza and Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu.
Context: Assessments on the state of European industry, from former Italian prime ministers Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, have provided a stark warning that the bloc is falling massively behind and losing the economic fight with the US and China — and that huge investment and regulatory overhaul is urgently needed.
“It is the first time that we really addressed the elephant in the room . . . [which] is that Europe is not competitive,” said José María Alvarez-Pallete López, chief executive of Spain’s Telefónica. “We can go on strike, we can go on therapy or we can go on action,” he added. “Unleash us, let us compete . . . I’m asking [for] us to be deregulated.”
Speaking at the FT Tech Leadership Forum in Brussels yesterday, he said regulators needed to trim existing rules as Europe had been lagging behind on innovation.
Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, agreed on the sense of urgency. One of her worries was “the gap, the amount of investment that’s required for Europe”. She said: “We also have weak democracies. The urgency is really here . . . We have to think about our children.”
“We are not looking for charity,” said Pietro Labriola, chief executive of Italian group TIM, adding that all the industry wanted was a regulatory environment that would allow them to scale up profitably and invest in the next generation of technology.
The three all supported a joint statement with 15 other chief executives in the sector sent to the European Commission calling for swift action.
Responding to the demands, the bloc’s digital chief Henna Virkkunen said Brussels would work on reducing bureaucracy.
Virkkunen said new rules “should bring more single market and also stimulate investments by cutting any red tape to unleash innovations and improve access to secure, fast and reliable connectivity as part of a broader strategy for connected collaborative computing”.
What to watch today
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EU justice ministers meet in Brussels.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Rome.
Now read these
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Money problems: Pedro Sánchez is facing an uphill struggle to pass a Spanish budget early next year.
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One of us: EU ministers approved the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to its Schengen area of free movement.
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Reset retreat: Sir Keir Starmer has agreed to attend a defence meeting with EU leaders in Brussels in February.
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