The confirmation of Franco Bassanini as president and Giovanni Gorno Tempini as managing director of Cassa depositi e prestiti (Cdp) was expected, but the joint list officially presented by the Treasury and the banking foundations for the renewal of the board of directors is in sight of the next company meeting is not a trivial fact. Far from it. It is very important for three reasons.
In the first place, the appointments are important because, in a phase of great divisions, they go against the tide and bear witness to the unity of purpose of the Treasury and the banking foundations, led by that wise old man who is Giuseppe Guzzetti, in defending and enhancing a dynamic and as essential as the Cashier.
Secondly, because the two main shareholders recognize the quality of the work carried out by Bassanini and Gorno Tempini and propose their reconfirmation.
Thirdly, because the reconfirmation of Bassanini and Gorno Tempini will allow the Cassa to reopen the dossier on the Telecom network at the very moment in which the offer by the Chinese of Hutchison Whampoa to acquire 29,9% of the telecommunications group led by Franco Bernabè relaunches the topicality of the problem of the future location and future structure of the network is highly topical. In the past, the spin-off of the fixed network into a newco with a strong Cdp stake had aroused perplexity but the move by the Chinese and the spin-off of Telecom (on the one hand, the services which could very well end up in the hands of the Chinese because - in a liberalized market - they are certainly strategic and, on the other hand, the fixed network which, being instead a sensitive asset, requires strong supervision of Italian national interests) opens up new scenarios today.
The confirmation of Bassanini and Gorno Tempini also has the sense of allowing us to immediately get to the heart of the future of the Italian telephone network.
