The last assembly of Confindustria Vicenza, just a few days after the vote, definitively marked the beginning of the season of absolute disenchantment with which the productive world of the Northeast looks at national politics. The breaking point came with the early termination of the Draghi government, on the eve of one of the most complicated economic winters in recent decades. Despite the war and international tensions, even in the first three months of 2022, on the long wave of orders from the end of the previous year, the exports of Veneto companies still reached an excellent +19,9% on 2021.
Elections: how businesses are looking at the challenge for the country's government
The fracture between politics and business has arrived precisely at the crucial moment of preparing the strategies (public and private) necessary to try to override the devastating effects of energy bills on company operations. So, a few days before the vote, how is the corpaccione of the productive and social fabric of the Northeast and Veneto moving?
To attempt to decipher it, some passages of the speech pronounced by are emblematic Laura from the Old, president of Confindustria Vicenza, in front of "his" 1.300 entrepreneurs. «We certainly don't worry about the cold and we smile when they tell us that the sacrifice will be to lower the radiators to 19 degrees. We are afraid of the lack of planning of a country that has given up on one of its best men and continues to show distance from businesses". This is precisely the most up-to-date photograph of the disenchantment in front of one of the strangest electoral campaigns of the republican history, which began under the umbrella and in the finishing straight with the first colds of mid-September which make the fear of facing a very harsh winter for the country even more "plastic".
Businesses and the terror of an industrial shutdown
The gigantic problem already on the table of the next government is keeping the supply chains afloat manufacturing inserted in the large international value chains, under pressure as never before due to stratospheric energy costs which risk triggering a fatal substitution effect to the detriment of companies that are temporarily no longer competitive. Among the small groups of entrepreneurs who gathered before and after the interventions of the national political leaders (Letta, Calenda, Urso and the two governors Zaia and Bonaccini), the questions were dangerously recurring on what to do in the event of energy rationing measures. Translated: an industrial stop hypothesis that had never been faced in recent times, not even in the most acute phases of the pandemic.
The sentiment of the industrial Veneto and the Northeast: Calenda leads the applause meter
The applause meter of consensus, compared to the political interventions in the lineup, would virtually place the leader of Azione Carlo Calenda in first position (here the effects of Industry 4.0 are still tangible) and followed by the secretary of the Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, who opened his speech with the claim of the full support of his party to the government of Mario Draghi.
However, the sentiment of the industrial Veneto and of the Northeast in general is evidently not only represented through the "pulse" of large companies, there is an army - perhaps even more numerous from the point of view of electoral consensus - of artisans and small family businesses that he finds himself completely mystified by the stunts of national parties.
Veneto Confartigianato, a week after the end of the electoral campaign, has published an interesting survey on the priorities of its associates. Two thirds of the 403 interviewed consider the early end of the legislature to be a mistake, an assessment which is confirmed by the fact that 6 out of 10 companies consider it absolutely necessary to guarantee continuity in the implementation of the PNRR and related reforms (taxation, justice and procurement).
THE VOICE OF THE ARTISANS
In the ranking of the measures to be taken in the first 100 days of government, the artisans are asking for a reduction in the cost of energy, measures to mitigate the tax burden and measures to stem the increase in the cost of raw materials. «Politics must bring attention back to those – observes Roberto Boschetto, president of Confartigianato Imprese Veneto – who have demonstrated their ability to create employment, economic well-being and social cohesion. It is also essential, in addition to continuing to press the EU to reach an agreement on a "price cap", to aim at energy self-production to protect the production system from market fluctuations and speculation on the cost of energy".
