Unions and Confindustria flaunt pessimism. But Prime Minister Mario Monti, in front of the audience of industrialists gathered for the last Marcegaglia management conference, is confident: the agreement on the labor market will take place on schedule. And on Fiat, the day after the meeting with Sergio Marchionne, the premier is explicit: we can, indeed we must, ask the company to take Italy into account, on the investment front. But Fiat deserves respect, not affected and perhaps incompetent analyzes of the group's intentions.
Monti advances without hesitation or indecision, strengthened by "an inexplicable consensus". “Minister Fornero – affirms the prime minister from the stage – immediately envisages interventions aimed at eliminating the segmentation between precarious and permanent workers and who immediately amends article 18 for new hires. The future of the government and the country depends on these rules». «If her corporate pressures or if her fellow ministers or her president were to ask her for a step back – she added – Elsa Fornero she should with the style and determination that characterize her, abandon them to their fate. Well, I'm afraid you can't leave us to our fate.' This is because, Prime Minister's word: “Negotiations on the labor market and social safety nets will close next week".
A manifestation of optimism that contrasts with the tensions that emerge from the protagonists: Raphael Bonanni he takes it out on the "opposing extremisms" that make it impossible to agree on the merits of article 18 and also brings up "a part of the government" in addition to Confindustra and the CGIL. Luigi is even more pessimistic Angeletta who goes so far as to say “I wouldn't bet any money on the deal”. Even more drastic Susanna Camusso: “We are far away, impossible to close on Tuesday”. The CGIL leader is pressing on: “Is the government willing to make an agreement? If this is the case, a mediation point is needed ».
In short, at least at first sight, the optimism of Monti's will seems to rest on fragile foundations. But the prime minister replies by warning against "the groundlessness of impatience". In the viewfinder is the leading article of the Corriere della Sera by Francesco Giavazzi, “a colleague who, due to an excess of impatience, commits numerous inaccuracies”, an accusation that sounds very serious, in the context of a dispute between academics. Monti harshly attacks Giavazzi, guilty of having minimized the results on the liberalization front (“I understand – he explains with ferocious irony – that those who follow the debate in newspaper reports may have lost sight of the overall picture”) and of having foreseen a fiasco on the front of the reform of the labor market which, Monti guarantees, will not take place.
In the face of the industrialists, lavish with applause, Monti makes no concessions: "The applause you address today to the policy of rigor - he argues - is the same that welcomed the policy of spending to the detriment of future generations in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs". His is not a generic discourse: first of all there is a firm and intransigent stance on the Tav front. On the left, the premier underlines, it has been said several times that the European Union must practice a development policy starting from infrastructure. Well, it is not possible to fail these principles at the first practical test, underestimating the risks of a no that can alienate Italy from Europe.
Then, the Fiat theme. Several times in the past, governments bowed to the short-term interest of Fiat or many other companies capable of making their advantages weigh on the general interest. And Monti refers, without mentioning names, to the purchase of Alfa Romeo. But, if one cannot forget the past, one cannot condition the future with previous mistakes. “A politician of the past – he adds – could have solicited easy applause by declaring that he had ordered Fiat to invest in Italy. Today I say that a company has the right, indeed the duty, to choose on the basis of its legitimate interests”. In short, Italy can, indeed must, fight to attract investments from Fiat or other companies that prefer to delocalise, but it is necessary to offer companies competitive conditions. “We talk about competitiveness, job flexibility but, above all, respect for the work of companies”. And in particular of Sergio Marchionne, not so popular in the Confindustria nomenclature.
Here ends the two days of Confindustria which did not give birth to the great agreement on the labor market: it is easy to think that the match will only be resolved at the last minute or in extra time. This is understandable, given the importance of what is at stake and the difficulty for the various duelists to digest the inevitable renunciations in the name of the general interest. But Monti is already looking ahead: after the road shows in London and on Wall Street made possible by the decline in the spread on BTPs, the premier is already thinking about other missions, dedicated to the real economy: "After the agreement on the labor market and a law to protect against corruption - he anticipates - I am ready to start the road shows to stimulate productive investments in Italy”. It is unlikely that this bet will be compromised by Article 18.
