“Fiat will continue to make cars. But the real question is what does Italy intend to do, if Italy wants to make cars. It is necessary to create the conditions for investing in the country”. Word of John Elkann, president of Fiat, which assume a particular value given the "hot" economic situation, not only in terms of weather, in Italy and in the world.
Fiat, says the group's number one shareholder, is not changing its strategies in the face of a crisis that is probably much more serious than Lingotto's own projections: the Italian market, as Sergio Marchionne recalled, is in the worst condition from 1996 to today (but perhaps things are even worse, he stressed); in the USA, by now the second homeland of the group, sales of 12,5 million units in 2011 will not go beyond, as the plans already foresaw, cautious for Chrysler (but hoped for something more); the brutal fall in shares on the Stock Exchange (42 percent since the beginning of August) could make the most solid company on the planet tremble, which Fiat certainly isn't.
In this context, the temptation to come to terms with those who argue that "today Fiat needs Italy" could arise, implicitly urging a step back from Lingotto in terms of investment choices or in relations with the union or politics. But Elkann has explicitly rejected this path: Fiat, a company led by a family that has faced equally violent financial and economic storms in its history, does not intend to change course. On the contrary, it will continue to produce cars, considering the merger with Chrysler, which has raised the production potential to 4 million units, a step towards the goal of 6 million cars, the critical threshold for being a global manufacturer.
Meanwhile, the group does not abdicate its Italian roots. Far from it: Sergio Marchionne and John Elkann's tribute to President Giorgio Napolitano proves it; this is confirmed by the frankness with which Elkann and Marchionne intervene on the Italy case.
The problem, the two say, is not only or above all public debt. The real crux concerns the country's credibility, both in terms of its fiscal and financial commitments, and as a place of work and development. Both, above all, on the front of the morality of the ruling class. In short, this is not the time to ask for "help" from the public budget or to say thank you if, finally, within the ambit of the manoeuvre, the reality of labor relations as they are regulated around the world is recognized (the "freedom of fire”, as it is hastily summarized in everyday jargon).
In short, Fiat does not ask to raise barriers to protect it in a country that persists in defending its clientele diversity, but, on the contrary, proposes itself as a point of reference to reduce the gap between Italy and what happens in the rest of the global economy. This applies to labor relations, which has aroused the wrath of part of the left and greatly embarrassed the structures of Confindustria, but it also applies to the approach to public debt. The lunge of Luca di Montezemolo in favor of a capital stock for the super rich does not displease (indeed like) Marchionne and, probably, Elkann who does not express himself explicitly so as not to involve Fiat too closely in matters that do not belong to the group. But it is clear that the road is that of the fight against evasion and of the solidarity contribution paid by those who can give and who have had so much in these years of growth to the advantage of profits and income but which have weighed on the shoulders of the middle classes and of the poorest. This is the main road, much more than the increase in taxes, including VAT, which can only have depressive effects on demand and, consequently, on the economy.
In short, in summary: 1) the crisis does not change Fiat's strategies; 2) the decision to focus on Italy, beyond what has already been decided for Pomigliano, concerns the country more than Fiat itself which, vis-à-vis the shareholders, cannot accept special treatment for the Bel Paese; 3) the group not only does not deny its Italian roots but intends to continue to have its say on the Italian case; 4) Luca di Montezemolo's entry into the field does not involve Fiat but enjoys the absolute sympathy of Marchionne and Elkann.
Therefore, woe to put a label favorable to the center-right or the left on Lingotto's head. Or to raise the eternal refrain on the aid received in the past decades. Today, as then, in reality, Fiat has played an essential role in keeping the country hooked to the leading platoon of civilized countries. And it intends to carry it out again, like what happens in Poland or Brazil. Even if the road, in times of declining demand and growing financial pressure, will not be easy. But anything is possible when you are credible. "I am willing to do anything to help the country if the goal is clear," Marchionne said. Maybe even to move his fiscal residence, if this act does not appear as demagogic blackmail: the CEO of Fiat need not fear the taxes on his highly publicized stock options when they were worth hundreds of millions, forgotten today when they are in practice ended up in smoke with the discounts of these days.
