“He said exactly what I wanted to hear. I would like what we heard today from the president to be done. Renzi's agenda is today the only one we have in Italy and in Europe, I hope they listen to him”. This was stated by Sergio Marchionne, director of Fiat-Chrysler, commenting on Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's speech during the Trento Festival of Economics. The manager therefore put on the agenda - in September - a visit to Detroit together with the Prime Minister: "I look forward to it".
As for his 10 years at the helm of the Lingotto, Marchionne sums up by recalling that in this period “the whole world has changed, but we have reacted very badly to the crisis of recent years. Now there are no alternatives, as Renzi says, we have to move. Fiat waited for Brussels to move, but Brussels didn't. Considering the opportunity that has opened up for us in America, we have exploited that global capacity, that robustness of results to restart the Italian production system by exploiting a brand that has historically been sold, making a commitment to restart the Italian industrial network ”.
As for Confindustria, “Fiat doesn't need it right now – added the CEO -. Rather, it needs American cash to finance European activity. We made a very simple choice regarding Confindustria. We have found many difficulties within Confindustria to change the Confindustria rules, to give Fiat the possibility of having a series of contracts directly with our workers. We were told that for many reasons we would not have succeeded and Confindustria has not made itself available to ensure that that part of the rules that would have had an impact on trade union relations between Fiat and its workers could be changed. We needed union tranquility and we called ourselves out. We have continued a process with the signatory trade unions which has brought enormous results for Fiat and for our employees. Those who remain in Confindustria do so for other reasons”.
In the immediate future, however, there is FCA's listing on the Stock Exchange, which will take place “within this year – continued Marchionne -, my goal is October 2018st”. As for the individual brands, Alfa Romeo will receive “five billion investments for the development of architecture and engines. Eventually we will re-employ the entire workforce and have no surplus. Until XNUMX we will not build Alfa Romeo outside Italy, then perhaps, if there is the sales success we expect, it will perhaps be necessary to produce abroad as well".
Lancia, on the other hand, “will become a product for the Italian market – concluded Marchionne -. Lancia has no value on the international market. We have tried everything, but there is no hope, Lancia will have a production contraction and will remain on the Italian market. I'm sorry, but in times of crisis choices have to be made and without investing billions we cannot give it the credibility that will restore its survival. We will give the President of the Republic another car, we will make him a Maserati”.
