Jo McKenna: Europe Correspondent gives an update on Pope Francis' health

It's been a peaceful night for the Pope as he continues his three-week recovery from a severe respiratory infection 

The 88-year-old was first treated for bronchitis before being diagnosed with double pneumonia in both lungs. 

The Vatican says he wore a ventilation mask overnight to help him breathe, following two episodes of acute respiratory failure earlier this week. 

Europe Correspondent Jo McKenna told Mike Hosking there's no sign he'll be leaving hospital anytime soon. 

She says they say he's stable, but the episodes of respiratory failure are definitely of concern. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Italy Time. Joe McKenna, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Are you at the Vatican?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm at the Vatican waiting for the latest update on
Pote Francis. He's been in hospital now for almost three weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Perhaps foolishly late last week said out loud that I
felt goodish about it all, given he seemed to have stabilized,
and then he had that upset over the weekend. But
he seems to have stabilized again. Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, that's what we've been hearing the last couple of days.
He's had four respiratory crises or incidents since he was
admitted to hospital on February fourteen. There's no sign of
him leaving hospital. They say that he's quite stable, but
those episodes of respiratory failure have certainly caused a lot

(00:46):
of concern and we just don't know if that's a deterioration.
Doesn't seem to be. It seems to be holding for now.
But it'll be interesting to get the update this evening.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Given the length of time this has gone on. What's
the level of interest in Italy has waned or is
it still as high as it was?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Look, I think there's a lot of interest in the
Pope's health, because in Italy the pope is like a
monarch really. Having said that, there's so much action going
on in Washington at the moment that seems to be
overtaking the news and the future of European armament as
well in relation to Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
You're speaking of all of that. So Vanderlyn comes out
with her it's Uro's eight hundred billions, so in our money,
it's about one and a half trullion dollars to sort
of buy some bombs and arms and get europesact together.
How does that sit with Maloney, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
She has been very supportive of the EU and NATO,
and she's coming under fire from some of her coalition partners,
notably the League leader, Deputy PM Matteo Selvini. He's raised
doubts about this proposal. Also tonight one of his colleagues,
John Colo Georgetti, who is the Italian finance minister. He's

(01:59):
also said that there is way too hasty and Italy
needs to think about it. It would cost Italy up
to fifty billion euros to be re arming and be
involved in this proposals.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
That broad Italian discussion that you need to spend more
on defense individually as a country farliest part of the
EU is that going on at your place?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
It sounds like it's more of we need to jump
on board with this European Union proposal.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Right, Okay, so Berlasconi, for example, used to hang out
with Putna, but they seem to be the buds when
you get to the right hand side of the Italian
political system. How many of them are on sort of
broadly speaking, Russia's side of this debate.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, certainly Matteo Salvini has been very pro Russian from
time to time, and it hasn't become clear where that's
come from and whether there has been some crossover in
terms of political financial support in the past, but he
certainly lines up more pro Russian than he does pro Zelenski,
and I think that's influence seeing his opposition to the

(03:01):
realm of mat as well.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now on the economy, you got zero point seven percent, which,
speaking to you from a country that's been going backwards
for the last four or five years, that's not bad.
That was that well received or no one sees it?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I think that has been quite positive news for
the government because the Maloney government's been doing more to
recover tax revenues in the last couple of years, and
as we know, Georgia Maloney's popularity is still very high.
So these accounts are good news. I think there are
other signs though, of concern, particularly as we've talked about,

(03:35):
with the possibility of those US tariffs. There's news today
that if they go ahead, they're going to have a
huge impact on cheese, olive, oil and wine exports. So
we'll see what happens there, all.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, Stay in touch, Joke, nice to talk to you,
appreciate it very much. Joe McKenna, who is standing by
seven o'clock at our time at the Vagan.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
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