Does Carlo Bonomi of Confindustria speak like Giorgia Meloni?
Heavy criticism of EU policies and public investments as if it were raining: it is not only the Meloni government who are asking for them but also Bonomi's Confindustria which registers an unexpected identity of views with Palazzo Chigi
The harmony between Confindustria and the government continues. Surprising not only for the themes, often far from the hymns to wild liberalism and deregulation always advocated by entrepreneurs, on which there is an unprecedented identity of views with the executive, but also for the common front with respect to an EU that has returned to stepmother and no longer mother. Those who expected that the representation of the business world would grumble about the Italian delays on the Pnrr to even enter fibrillation in the face of the muscle tests that Palazzo Chigi has decided to engage with Brussels on the Mes, will be disappointed: Carlo Bonomi continues to follow the moves by Giorgia Meloni .
THE BONOMI – MELONI ALLIANCE AGAINST THE EU
"European schizophrenia is now evident, ideological regulatory extremism is the basis of many EU measures, a dogmatic approach that risks causing disorientation of businesses and the loss of strategic assets in the country". To say it is neither a Northern League supporter nor an exponent of the Brothers of Italy, but Carlo Bonomi, from the columns of the home newspaper, who in recent days has resumed his speech at a conference on sustainability organized by Confindustria Bergamo and Brescia.
The number 1 of industrialists reiterates his dissatisfaction with the new green vision of the EU Commission: «Only the Fit for 55 will require Italy to invest 1,100 billion and the Italian Pnrr represents only 3.7% of direct investment needs, which add indirect costs.
For this reason, Bonomi abandons the themes dear to Confindustria on free private initiative and the need to limit the interventions of the legislator by invoking "a large investment plan for the 5.0 transition, independent of the logic of state aid, which gives resources directly to companies at a EU: a European industrial policy that puts businesses and skills at the center and stimulates investments. We need to focus on how to do industry 5.0 in Europe».
But the discontent about the snares and snares of the Community legislator remains. For Bonomi, in fact, the EU regulations «only risk, if not contained, weakening the industrial fabric. This battle on competitiveness cannot be fought by individual states. Instead the opposite is happening. The lack of a strategic vision is leaving the big EU countries, including France and Germany, free to act autonomously. Uncoordinated industrial policies and the prevalence of selfishness risk being a threat not only for Italian industry but for the foundations of Europe itself".
CONFINUSTRIA'S IRA ON BIDEN'S IRA
What is certain is that unparalleled public intervention has also been recorded on other markets, made up of subsidies and protectionist measures (the most striking is Biden's Wrath) which forces liberal ideals to be left in the drawer: «the United States and China they are investing considerable and unprecedented resources. How does Europe respond? The European structure does not seem to be adequate to face the challenges in terms of competitiveness with these giants".
This requires "cooperation between states, otherwise every action is a drop in the ocean: Europe is responsible for only 8% of climate-changing emissions, China, in 2021, for 33%, exceeding the sum of the United States, Europe , India and Russia".
In short, the synergy with the government seems to be at the highest levels. Bonomi, who did not send them to Giuseppe Conte in the midst of the pandemic and on the management of the Pnrr («We imagined a plan that would concentrate on strengthening the country's growth potential. Instead, we found ourselves faced with a series of interventions ») and who seemed to have lost his smile with the fall of Mario Draghi ("We industrialists were incredulous in the face of Draghi's fall. The irresponsibility of the parties reached its peak that day", he told Corriere at the end of July 1922) , seems to have found the desired interlocutor in Meloni.
NOT ONLY BONOMI, CONFINDUSTRIA WONDERS FOR MELONS
Only a few days ago we recorded the curious media buzz that appeared in the pages of the Confindustria del Sole : no less than two articles (an interview with former number 1 of Confindustria Lombardia Marco Bonometti , president of the OMR Group, Officine Meccaniche Rezzatesi, a company specialized in the production of bases for engines, transmissions, chassis and suspension accompanied by an editorial by the editor of the page on engines) to say that Stellantis is leaving our country on the sly and therefore a state intervention in the shareholding structure is needed to ballast it here.
These interventions were followed by the even more explicit one by Paolo Scudieri , president of Anfia, the Association of companies in the automotive supply chain, managing director of the Adler Hp Pelzer Group, a family business founded by his father, Achille, in 1956 with turnover 2 billion euro active in the design, development and production of components and systems for the transport industry but, above all, a member of the Advisory Board of Confindustria. In the past he was also a member of the national council of Confindustria and of the select committee for internationalisation.
"It is necessary to balance the forces and weights in Stellantis, it is a question of a right thing, in light of the presence of the French state" is Scudieri's comment on the proposal put forward in the Sole 24 Ore by Bonometti, who spoke of the possibility of an entry Cdp in Stellantis to balance the presence of the French state and protect the Italian supply chain.
The most interesting aspect is that the proposal follows the one that Giorgia Meloni 's party put forward to Mario Draghi , Prime Minister at the time. “We will present a project which provides for the preparation of a national plan for the automotive sector and the participation of CDP in the shareholding structure of the new company on a par with the French public share. It is now, in fact, clear how it was not at all a question of an equal merger between FCA and PSA but a sale that foreshadows a French governance, whose public shareholder has, moreover, increased its share after the merger, contrary to what was previously affirmed”, in fact Adolfo Urso , today Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, said at an online meeting in March 2021.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/carlo-bonomi-di-confindustria-parla-come-giorgia-meloni/ on Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:04:56 +0000.