Franco Bassanini he had sworn not to be attached to the chair and never to have put personal interests before institutions in his long public career. And yesterday, after an agreement was reached between the banking foundations and the Government on the governance of the Cassa, he punctually confirmed his resignation as president of the CDP, a truly rare gesture in Italy. The acknowledgment of the brilliant results achieved under his guidance was unanimous. Bassanini, who for now has agreed to become Matteo Renzi's special adviser at Palazzo Chigi, will remain president of Metroweb and will continue to deal with ultra-broadband.
Bassanini will be replaced by Claudio Costamagna, purebred banker and advisor of all the main Italian privatizations when he was a top manager of Goldman Sachs. Couldn't have chosen better.
After an excellent president, the CDP will have another equally brilliant one, but the problem does not concern men, but the role of the CDP and the style with which the turnover takes place. Andrea Guerra, former number one of Luxottica and next CEO of Eataly, advisor to Matteo Renzi and director of the CDP operation spoke about this yesterday.
The fact that he was and is an excellent manager did not prevent Guerra from making a bad impression on terrain unknown to him, because the CDP operation could not have been managed worse and he gave the impression of being at the mercy of amateurs at the same time. shambles. Both because the way in which the entire operation was conducted will leave foreigners who wish to invest in Italy much doubt - and it will take all of Costamagna's international skill to win them back and reassure them of the stability of the rules - and because it raises the suspicion that the CDP you change your strategy to resemble the old Iri by entering companies that do not have healthy balance sheets (such as Ilva or Telecom) or that are not strategic, thus resurrecting the deleterious logic of the entrepreneurial state.
Guerra tried to justify himself by claiming that "the Government has no will or desire to change the mission of Cassa depositi e prestiti" but then added that "it is important that the Cassa has a new project, a new program within its mission, of its Statute with more proactivity, incisiveness and a long-term horizon".
The former number one of Luxottica also dismissed as "imaginative" the project attributed to him and to the Government of having provoked the turnaround in the CDP to take the telecom control but he added that the CDP may have "investments in strategic companies" by statute. But the point is precisely this: the Telecom network is certainly strategic, i.e. not replicable, but not all of Telecom which, in addition to the network, includes services which in Italy have been liberalized some time ago and are subject to competition with Vodafone, Wind, 3G and Fastweb. The Telecom network needs to be secured but there is no reason for Italian postal savings to be used to buy a share in Telecom. There is no ambiguity on this.
But the daring CDP affair signals another aspect of Renzi's management that can no longer be underestimated. Let's forget the childish controversies about man alone in command: it is perfectly right that in a party as in a government there is a single leader of a strong personality like Renzi who assumes all political responsibilities, especially at a time when the Prime Minister ordinary administration is not expected but an action of great change and strong modernization of the country.
Renzi has so far been the only premier able to dispel every taboo and courageously open the building site of reforms that have been invoked for too long but never implemented. But such a work, which alone would be enough to make anyone's wrists tremble, would need the wisdom and professionalism of a team worthy of the premier. Unfortunately there aren't those who don't see the weakness of too many ministers (from Guidi to Giannini and Madia there isn't one of these three that deserves the sufficiency) and, after the CDP operation, also of many councilors. And it is time for the Prime Minister to realize this and change gears decisively: put safe competence before simple loyalty. Making reforms is already so difficult and there is no need for own goals.
