Thought and action of Enrico Mattei. Sapelli’s analysis
Giulio Sapelli, historian and economist: "It should be remembered, to deny an easy grotesque characterization of his action, that Mattei's death reached when he had just concluded an important agreement with the North American and British energy companies"
ENRICO MATTEI SEEN BY GIULIO SAPELLI
(Extract from an article published by Il Sole 24 Ore on 27 October 2022)
The issue of the security of energy supplies, of their continuity for the conservation and growth of the economic mechanism of accumulation and transformation becomes essential today and brings back to a principle of reality even those who have underestimated or even not considered it for decades.
Instead, this was precisely the goal, the essential commitment of the entrepreneur Mattei. A totus politicus entrepreneur, with great horizons and who placed at the center of his action the supply of energy sources necessary for the structure of the companies that, after World War II, undertook to rebuild not only Italy, but also France and Germany, nations that had had the industrial and commercial fabric destroyed by the war. It was the "economic miracle" and it was only possible thanks to the action of Mattei and his creation: Eni, the National Hydrocarbon Organization, which provided the energy sources necessary for Italian and European growth. An energy security that was the constant objective of the cohort of industrial managers and economists and sociologists and engineers of the highest order who surrounded Mattei in the construction of both the company and the relationship it established with the territories in which it operated.
The nations holding the energy fields found in him and his collaborators the creators of a contractual regime that defeated the competition of the international oligopoly and thus offered Italian companies energy at prices lower than those set by the oligopoly. And in doing so, a virtuous relationship (today we would say sustainable) was established with those economies and societies, which activated a mechanism of productive circularity for which companies and all of Italy actively interpreted the foundations in those new lands, on the way to decolonization emerging of a new order of international relations.
The energy industry has always been an industry that has connected and brought together – and never divided – peoples and states. This is demonstrated by the Abrahamic pact between the Gulf monarchies and Israel and, as a more direct and current example, the role of Eni in Egypt and Africa and above all in Algeria in the terrible scenarios of a war of aggression to which it will have to put an end as soon as possible, even with diplomatic initiative. Mattei started the weaving of a warp, of a series of international relations, which were essential for the role of Italy in the Greater Middle East, as is demonstrated today by the role played by that which, in the corporate and civil changes that have taken place in the configuration of the company, continues to be his creation: Eni.
International relations, diplomatic in a broad sense and in close connection with the decisive and primary role of our career diplomacy, business relations and very dense human relationships, which have proved invaluable in the current situation and which have allowed and will allow Italy today to glimpse a way of resilience to the "war energy crisis" that has hit Europe and the Mediterranean up to Central Asia, due to the landslide that international relations have had under the pressure of Russian aggression.
But Mattei's life was interrupted by an attack of international terrorism by those subversive forces that had opposed the Algerian liberation struggle, the results of which Charles de Gaulle "constitutionalized" with that courage that cost him an attack that could also have been for him mortal.
It should be remembered, to disprove an easy grotesque characterization of his action, that Mattei's death reached when he had just concluded an important agreement with the North American and British energy companies, which placed the relations between the dominant energy companies and even between the states bordering the Mediterranean. Cefis continued – then as his successor – the undertaking and achieved important objectives in this regard. It should also be remembered that Mattei had intelligently supported that anti-colonial struggle not only for geostrategic energy interests, but also for his extraordinary democratic culture as a fighter partisan during the Resistance, which characterized the same figure as a leading politician in Democracy. Christian post World War II. And it was Mattei himself, let us remember, who confirmed the historic leaders of the Fascist period to the management of Agip because he recognized in them the extraordinary technicians devoted to the company and to Italy and who had paved the way for the Italian energy industry.
A controversial and controversial figure, but who stands out like a comet in the sky of national and European history and who continues to be a source of pride and example for entrepreneurs and for all those who know that the company is a virtuous economic actor because it is virtuous social actor, aimed at growth in harmony with creation.
(Extract from an article published by Il Sole 24 Ore on 27 October 2022)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/pensiero-e-azione-di-enrico-mattei-lanalisi-di-sapelli/ on Sat, 29 Oct 2022 05:36:09 +0000.