"The accusations of anti-Italianness that I have often heard are simply absurd“. Sergio Marchionne has no doubts: from the stage of the Unione Industriale in Turin, the CEO of Fiat replies in kind to those who accuse him of now being the head of an American multinational: “What we are doing – underlines the manager – has the sole objective of making our company more efficient, to guarantee solid and lasting prospects and to create well-being in the area in which we operate”.
If anything, anti-Italian is "those who leave the country, those who decide not to invest - continues Marchionne -, those who do not want to take note of the world around us and prefer to remain isolated in their own past". That's not all: “Anti-Italian is someone who wastes time discussing and postponing problems, someone who doesn't take responsibility for changing things, looking ahead and acting. Anti-Italian is whoever adopts illegitimate behaviour, who does not respect the rules, who harms the rights of citizens and businesses”.
Then the number one at the Lingotto identifies more defined targets: “Many in Italy, starting with a part of politics, the union and the press, have not understood, or rather, they did not want to understand the extent of the change what happened in Fiat and the meaning of our experience. A change that leads us to face challenges in a different way than in the past". The original fault of the detractors, according to Marchionne, would be to "look at our company in the light of an old model, which no longer exists".
And in the face of such a changing scenario "we can no longer afford to waste time to postpone the problems or to discuss – reiterates the Italian-Canadian manager -. We don't deserve it, nor our past. We need to look ahead and start acting, as soon as possible."
On this road, one of the most impervious obstacles can only be, from the perspective of the CEO, "the position of Fiom, which has always been preconceived, anachronistic, fueled by an a priori antagonism and more concerned with protecting its own power than the interests collectives". In short, an acronym that “has always been much more political than trade union“, and gave birth to a real “minority tyranny".
As for theexit from Confindustria, "it is a choice that we have evaluated very seriously and that has nothing to do with political reasons", Marchionne repeats once again, underlining that Fiat "has done and is doing everything necessary to become more efficient and to free oneself from constraints which in a market economy are nothing but useless brakes”.
A pacifist line also confirmed by the other party: "Ours is an excellent relationship, we have never argued," said the number one of the industrialists, Emma Marcegaglia, after welcoming Marchionne warmly at the conference.
