That the renewal of the top positions of theEni, the Italian oil giant which is also a fundamental asset for Italian foreign policy especially in the Middle East, was the mother of all the public appointments on the agenda for the spring, it has been known for some time. But the rumors of the last few days confirm it and say that, in the face of the reflections still underway in the Pd house, the grillini would be decidedly against the reappointment of Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Eni who is looking for a third term after the appointments he received from the Renzi and Gentiloni governments.
While on the appointments of the major public groups about to expire - from Enel to Terna, from the Italian Post Office to Leonardo and Enav - a general orientation towards reappointment seems to mature in the political system and in the Government, with very few adjustments by the current top management, also by virtue the good economic and stock market results achieved, over ENI the Five Stars would like to claim a victory which marks a clear discontinuity by liquidating Descalzi.
An indication of Grillini's guidelines on nominations is a dossier published yesterday by "Il Fatto Daily", a publication notoriously close to the Five Stars, which controversially and explicitly headlines as follows: "Misdirection, errors and trials: 10 "why not" to Descalzi ter“. "All the reasons - adds the eye of the article in the newspaper directed by Marco Travaglio - why Pd and Cinque Stelle must not reconfirm the CEO of the giant: from the bribe in Nigeria to his wife's affairs".
Among the 10 reasons that, according to the newspaper, should lead the government forces to reject Descalzi's reappointment at the helm of Eni, there are in fact mainly two that have clouded the image of the CEO and of Eni. The first is the indictment, so far not resolved and addressed to Descalzi, of international corruption in the trial for the largest bribe in Italian history i.e. that of a billion which in 2011 Eni, according to the indictment, would have paid to obtain the Opl 245 Nigerian field but that it would not have entirely ended up in Nigerian hands.
The second of the main reasons why Descalzi should not be reconfirmed at the helm of Eni, according to "Il Fatto Quotidiano", concerns alleged favoritism to the CEO's wife, Marie Madeleine Ingoba, who has controlled companies that have provided services to ENI for about 300 million dollars and which are being investigated by the prosecutors of Milan.
But also Eni's stock market performance, although influenced by oil price fluctuations once mitigated by a better diversified portfolio, does not bode well for Descalzi's management: last year, against a Ftse Mib which gained around 30%, Eni's share closed with a very modest increase of 1,8%, while in 2020 Eni lost 7,5% on the Stock Exchange and is the only stock of companies awaiting nominations to show up in the red against double-digit increases of the others public energy groups.
It is no coincidence that the names of gods have been circulating for some time both in Roman political circles and in the financial community possible candidates to replace Descalzi at the head of Eni: in pole position are the CEO of Saipem, Stephen Cao, 69 years old, and that of Snam, Marco Alvera, 44 years old, both profound connoisseurs of the complex planet Eni, whose appointment would be accompanied by that of a guarantee president of high international standing.
