Carlo Calenda, the minister who could have successfully ended the disasters of theAlitalia, of the Ilva factories and of the former Lucchini in Piombino risks, through no fault of his own, taking home a handful of dried chestnuts at the end of his mandate. The meeting on Wednesday 10 January at the Ministry on the future of Ilva appears as the final proof of a bad story that has been created over time and fueled locally around the most important foreign investment in Italy in recent decades, an investment that has almost reached its final goal.
The Governor of Puglia, after the insults, insists that the Minister be removed from the table he owns and wants the Prime Minister in front of him. The Mayor of Taranto sided with him with that "tirabaci" mustache that makes him look like the sidekick of the Neapolitan comedy. Not to be outdone, the president of the Province of Taranto has seen fit to activate proceedings before the Administrative Court in opposition to the action initiated by his Region and by his Mayor.
The Tamburi district committee is missing and then we have put all the protagonists of a story that with the Rivas has turned the most important iron and steel plant in Europe into a tragedy. Not happy, Michele Emiliano always reminds everyone that in addition to his tax papers, a file is pending at the Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Taranto: a time bomb that could call into question the whole affair of the Ilva plants.
What can come out on the 9th from the ministry in via Veneto? Yet another postponement? Or as many fear a strategic rethinking of Mittal that puts the entire investment in question? The Indian giant has no intention of putting its money at risk without the certainty of a contract that leaves all the unknowns of administrative judgments and criminal trials at the door.
In this case, say the Indian entrepreneur's closest collaborators, after the stories put up by Emiliano & C., a further guarantee from the state of a few million euros may be needed. What if Mittal gave up? The automatic takeover of Jindal, the second competitor, is not even conceivable. The international tender should be restarted with all that it entails. At least a year's time, bearish values and mortally wounded credibility on the markets.
The ministry table has turned into a card table. On the green carpet, gambling is played with chips that are not "paid" by the player but by Italian taxpayers. If the Governor of Puglia wins, he wins on his own; if he loses he doesn't pay. So all those who are following him in an adventure that has very little industrial. Conflicts of power emerge, claims of competence, individual protagonisms and local advantages and then, now, also the desire to decide candidates and seats.
