Let's hope it ends soon the ministerial ordeal of Carlo Calenda. The major management operations of the most pressing corporate crises are all at a standstill: firm and plastered in the final phase but not in the finishing straight. You go up and down, day in and day out, the staircases of the building in Via Veneto more to keep the attention of the unions and local realities alive, despite knowing that until the formation of a new government, nothing will be determined. While waiting, we are satisfied with a news headline, a television broadcast, a tired ministerial declaration.
Among the major open questions (Ilva, Piombino, Alitalia etc) the only one Alcoa ha found a solution after more than 5 years of layoffs with a considerable outlay of public money to support the energy costs of the new Swiss property. The gesture of opening the Management (or Supervisory?) Board to employees appears to be a good omen, as does the US embargo on Chinese aluminum which has boosted the price of the metal and the revenues of the European one.
A Tarentum, although Mittal is waiting for a new government to finalize the commitments undertaken but subjected to the request for public indemnities after the rash initiatives of the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Taranto, the Indian steelmaker has officially communicated to the European Commission the sites that it would be willing to alienate in order to Ilva from the dominant position procedure. Among the sites being sold, the Magona d'Italia plant stands out, the second productive lung of the city of Piombino.
In the Tuscan city the uncertainty of the Magona is intertwined with the long agony of the Former Lucchini steelworks and the defaults of the last manager, the Algerian Aferpi. Even on the promontory overlooking Elba, fortune did not assist Carlo Calenda. He had announced the imminent arrival of the Indian Jindal, ready to sign to restructure and relaunch the Tuscan plant. But the plane that landed stopped at Hisar Hariana. It was clear that in the midst of an electoral campaign whose results had clearly been directed towards uncertainty, it was unthinkable to give substance to an agreement which had to see a Government in full power and with clear guidelines.
Now, with clear results but increased political uncertainties, the Indians are standing on the river bank waiting to see, with bowls still, the real intentions of the new Minister. The thrust and electoral triumph of both the Lega and the 5Stelle (in all the situations just mentioned) have brought back into the ministerial dossiers the possible public role that hovers over both the future of Piombino and Mittal's shareholding structure in Taranto. For an Alitalia ready to support a competition between weight contenders it will be difficult to avoid the step requested above all by Lufthansa: first restructure and then we'll talk about it. Which means putting your hand to the public purse.
In recent periods Carlo Calenda seems to be no longer on the piece. The rapid enrollment in the Democratic Party and his immediate presence at the top of the party, as well as the continuous proposals for overcoming the crisis, have tarnished his profile as a decisive and concrete manager. A longtime senator, in this regard, recalled, also for him, the fulminant quip of Giancarlo Pajetta regarding the career of Enrico Berlinguer: "He is someone who joined the Party Directorate at a very young age".
