Because last Thursday the Financial Times opened the news of the masterpiece by Sergio Marchionne and historic conquest of Chrysler by Fiat and Il Sole 24 Ore confined it to a modest leaflet of only three columns, even if accompanied by a sharp comment? Randomness and bizarreness often reign in the packaging of the newspapers, but in this case the news was and is as big as a house and some reason in the different editorial choices of the first economic newspaper in Europe and in the first economic newspaper in Italy owes us to be. Let's also take into account that in the creation of a newspaper time is running out and it can always play tricks, but this does not seem to be the case. The choice, to say the least, of the Confindustria newspaper brings to mind Pavlovian reflections, above all if one thinks of the ill-concealed coldness with which the president of the industrialists, Giorgio Squinzi, commented on the news of Marchionne's victory. Even Susanna Camusso, who certainly won't go down in union history as one of the most farsighted leaders of the CGIL, showed more warmth. Unfortunately Squinzi, who with his Mapei has proved to be an excellent entrepreneur but who as president of the industrialists doesn't get it right, has not yet realized (as also happened to Emma Marcegaglia) that, without representing Fiat, which remains the a symbol company and the heart of the Italian manufacturing industry, Confindustria is now little more than a provincial Rotary. Once upon a time the industrial organization made governments tremble, today it can say what it wants but no one is pissed off anymore.
But the oversight of the Sun and the obtuseness of Confindustria are not accidental and bring to mind a very brilliant analysis by Bill Emmott, published a few months by "La Stampa", in which the former director of the Economist recounted how much damage to Italy's international image is the fact that a manager as capable and as much celebrated abroad as Sergio Marchionne is instead misunderstood or even vilified in Italy. In recent years, the trade union and political left, but also Forza Italia and the M5S, not to mention the most popular newspapers, have, with rare exceptions, competed in taking the bucks at Fiat and Marchionne, who have certainly accomplished their mistakes, but who are the creators of that little miracle that transformed an industrial reality that ten years ago was technically bankrupt into the seventh automotive group in the world.
Marchionne's new American success will go down in history and perhaps erase the blunders that the Italian establishment has made in recent years on Fiat by obtusely turning its back on the revolution that the Lingotto was building. But a question arises if we question ourselves on the near future of Fiat-Chrysler. And it is a disturbing but inevitable question, which can be summarized as follows: does today's Italy deserve a multinational of the caliber of Fiat? Luckily at Palazzo Chigi the last two prime ministers (from Mario Monti to Enrico Letta), not to mention the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano and more recently the new secretary of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, have perfectly understood the importance that the revolution of Fiat has for Italy itself, but it remains to be seen whether the economic, political and trade union ruling class as a whole is capable of making self-criticism and answering another question, just as uncomfortable as the previous one, namely: what can Italy do today to deserve Fiat and to push it to consolidate its relations with its own history and with the land where it was born and where it developed to become the leading industry in the country?
In an interesting comment on Thursday's Il Sole 24 Ore, Andrea Malan wrote: for Fiat "two fundamental questions remain on the table: the one on the legal and physical headquarters of the future group and the one on the industrial strategy, in particular on how many will be and where the indispensable investments will go to face an increasingly fierce competition”. And he concluded: "On both issues, the Italian system still has cards to play, but it must play them well". Let's hope it's not too late.
