The new prime minister is leveraging his European relationships and his solid reputation to make Italy a force on the continent in a way it has not been in decades.

By Jason Horowitz

ROME — The European Union was stumbling through a Covid-19 vaccine rollout marred by shortages and logistical bungling in late March when Mario Draghi took matters into his own hands. The new Italian prime minister seized a shipment of vaccines destined for Australia — and along with them, an opportunity to show that a new, aggressive and potent force had arrived in the European bloc.

The move shook up a Brussels leadership that had seemed to be asleep at the switch. Within weeks, in part from his pressing and engineering behind the scenes, the European Union had authorized even broader and harsher measures to curb exports of Covid-19 vaccines badly needed in Europe. The Australia experiment, as officials in Brussels and Italy call it, was a turning point, both for Europe and Italy.

It also demonstrated that Mr. Draghi, renowned as the former European Central Bank president who helped save the euro, was prepared to lead Europe from behind, where Italy has found itself for years, lagging behind its European partners in economic dynamism and much-needed reforms.

In his short time in office — he took power in February after a political crisis — Mr. Draghi has quickly leveraged his European relationships, his skill in navigating E.U. institutions and his nearly messianic reputation to make Italy a player on the continent in a way it has not been in decades.

With his friend Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany leaving office in September, President Emmanuel Macron of France facing tough elections next year and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, struggling to demonstrate competence, Mr. Draghi is poised to fill a leadership vacuum in Europe.

Increasingly, he seems to be speaking for all of Europe.

“The difference is that everybody, when Mario Draghi speaks, knows that he is not just pushing, boosting the Italian interest” but rather the European Union’s, Italy’s minister for European affairs, Vincenzo Amendola, said in an interview.

Knowing full well that Mr. Draghi derived his influence from his international reputation, Mr. Amendola said that given the potential void of leadership in Europe, “you need stable leaders who bring confidence.”

At home, Mr. Draghi’s vaccine gambit in March provided political red meat to an Italian population starved for vaccines and a sense of agency, but it was calculated to improve Europe’s leverage as a whole.

Abroad, his first stop, to Libya, sought to restore waning Italian influence in the troubled former Italian colony that is critical to Italy’s energy needs and to efforts to stem illegal migration from Africa. He has also not shied away from picking a fight with Turkey’s autocratic leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “With these dictators — let us call them what they are — one must be frank in expressing one’s diversity of views and visions of society,” Mr. Draghi said.

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