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The former Ilva disaster? Conte’s fault, not Meloni. Word of Calenda

4 months ago babelfish

The former Ilva disaster? Conte's fault, not Meloni. Word of Calenda

The real responsibility for the former Ilva crisis lies with the Conte government according to the former Minister of Economic Development, Calenda: the M5s – with the support of the Democratic Party and IV – eliminated the criminal shield, creating the conditions for Mittal's disengagement . All the details

“The Meloni Government has no responsibility for the Ilva crisis. Ilva's crisis arose when an armored agreement was blown up, signed following a European competition, first confirmed and then undone by Conte and his companions to please Lezzi after the terrible result of the European elections". These are the thoughts, condensed in

The shareholders of Acciaierie d'Italia – the Indian-Luxembourg group ArcelorMittal, which owns 68 percent, and the Ministry of Economy through Invitalia, with 32 percent – have not found an agreement for the capital increase and debt restructuring: the company needs liquidity to reactivate production and its liabilities amount to approximately 1.5 billion euros.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FORMER ILVA AND WHAT COULD HAPPEN, IN BRIEF

In short, on Monday ArcelorMittal representatives rejected the Italian government's proposal for a 320 billion euro capital increase in Acciaierie d'Italia, which would have brought Invitalia's stake to 66 percent by passing the company under the control of the state. ArcelorMittal, however, has not shown any intention "to make financial and investment commitments, even as a minority shareholder", the government said in a statement .

The most probable scenario at this point – according to Il Sole 24 Ore – is the start of a legal dispute between the government and ArcelorMittal; Acciaierie d'Italia could end up under extraordinary administration. “The government's intentions”, continues the Confindustria newspaper, “is to identify an industrial partner that can take over. For months now the name of Arvedi or other Northern steelmakers has been mentioned."

– For further information, read: Ex Ilva: Does Arcelor Mittal only deal with severance pay?

It has been known for some time that ArcelorMittal was no longer willing to invest in the relaunch of the former Ilva. As the journalist and editorialist of Il Sole 24 Ore Paolo Bricco , an expert in Italian industrial history, wrote, “Arcelor Mittal withdrew its foreign management in 2019 and deconsolidated Acciaierie d'Italia from its balance sheet, making it a sad monad without vital connections with its powerful organism of the second group in the world. Many had understood it. Now the Government has also understood this."

THE “CRIMINAL SHIELD” AND CALENDA'S ATTACK ON THE CONTE GOVERNMENT

According to Carlo Calenda – former Minister of Economic Development from 2016 to 2018, in the Renzi and Gentiloni governments -, the last chapter of the long crisis of the former Ilva was written by the government of Giuseppe Conte of the 5 Star Movement, which he said was guilty of having "undoed" an "armored agreement" to "please Lezzi", that is Barbara Lezzi, minister for the South from 2018 to 2019. As Il Foglio wrote in 2019, Lezzi was the "first signatory of the amendment to the companies decree which last October 22nd it eliminated immunity for the steelworks managers”.

In short, in 2019 the Conte government eliminated the so-called "criminal shield" for ArcelorMittal, which guaranteed the Indian-Luxembourg group the certainty that it would not have to "pay criminally for errors made previously by others", summarized Bricco in an article early December.

“As I declared then,” continues Calenda on X, “Ilva's story ends today. No investor will come to put money in a country that changes rules and regulations ex post. The subsequent choice to create a company with Mittal without constraints and armored posts was madness, as was the never-kept promise to make green steel without explaining what it was. At this point the only 'solution' is to relegate the plant to extraordinary administration, using a law passed by the Gentiloni government, and start all over again. However, we do not know whether this implies penalties because we do not know the agreements between Mittal and Invitalia, which have remained secret".

“This is the situation,” concludes the Action secretary. “Those responsible are the parties that voted, after confirming it, for the abolition of the penal shield. The end had therefore been known for four years. Now let's at least try to learn from what happened. Italian politics has little or no knowledge of businesses. The result is that they think they can play with industrial assets as if they were press conferences or acrobats' slogans. It does not work".

A few minutes after the publication of the post, Calenda added another message: "I would like", he wrote , "that we would try to think clearly and remember the hundreds of hours of talk shows that talked about the amazing ideas of the 5S, of how they had forced Mittal to lower his head by threatening the 'mother of all causes' etc”.

HOW WE GOT TO THIS POINT, ACCORDING TO CALENDA

Also on

1) ILVA's award procedure to Mittal concluded with Conte uno following the signing of the labor agreement and after a long period of "study" of the tender (cost 80 million). To this end, please review Di Maio's brilliant video with triumphalist declarations. And my next compliments for changing your mind.

2) Then you changed your mind again and canceled the agreement because the European elections went badly.

3) Then you threatened to file the mother of all lawsuits against Mittal

4) Then you changed your mind and created a company with Mittal in the majority without any guarantee.

5) Then you promised green steel.

6) Then you left the Italians to pay the bill for all this bullshit.

THE MEANING OF THE CRIMINAL SHIELD IN ARCELORMITTAL

In 2019, interviewed by La Stampa , Calenda explained that the criminal shield on the former ILVA was "indispensable" because "it serves to ensure that those who comply with all the obligations established by law in the environmental plan are not prosecuted. Which instead happened in the past. After that, without the shield, no one comes to invest in Taranto and no one does the environmental work."

The politician added that this guarantee had been requested not only by ArcelorMittal, but also by the competing consortium led by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (therefore by the Ministry of Economy).

“ILVA IS OVER”, ACCORDING TO CALENDA

Guest on Omnibus , on LA7, Calenda today declared that – given the lack of agreement between ArcelorMittal and the government for the recapitalization of Acciaierie d'Italia – "the only practicable alternative is to use a rule […] which allows Ilva to be put back into extraordinary administration […]. When the race happened and Mittal won, Mittal didn't have the factory. Mittal had the factory on the condition of signing an armored agreement which provided for a whole series of things […]. When the Five Star Movement confirmed it and then blew it up by removing the criminal shield – which, I remember, had not been given to Mittal, it already belonged to the government commissioners -, therefore changing the legal perimeter, what happens is that first Conte says ' I do the "mother of all causes" and then we create a company together" through Invitalia as a minority shareholder.

“But creating a company together with Mittal, with the state inside, since Mittal has no obligation, is the worst thing of all,” claims Calenda. “For me Ilva, let's say, is over. The point is how much money the state will put into it. Because a steelworks of that size is difficult for the state to manage, especially with European standards, which are particularly stringent on steel. And because no one will ever come to invest in Ilva again. Partly because there are gigantic legal risks. The legal shield was then, paradoxically, restored."

HOW WILL IT END?

According to Calenda, "perhaps from this whole affair – which in my opinion will lead to the closure of Ilva, to having to carry out a gigantic, very complicated clean-up – we can learn one thing: that you cannot use factories as electoral advertising. Because that criminal shield was removed because the 5 Star Movement [with the favorable vote also of the Democratic Party and Italia Viva, Calenda himself specifies, ed. ] did badly in the European elections. This way of doing industrial policy means closing factories."

In 2019, Calenda attacked not only the 5 Star Movement, but also "Renzi and the Democratic Party chaired by Paolo Gentiloni" for having reneged on the steps taken on the former ILVA "because they are unable to tell the 5 Star Movement that an article of law needed to be confirmed which they had written themselves."

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/crisi-ex-ilva-colpe-pensiero-calenda/ on Tue, 09 Jan 2024 15:16:04 +0000.