ArcelorMittal Ilva spring. The grain on Conte's table

Goodbye goodbye. ArcelorMittal has notified the extraordinary commissioners of Ilva of the will to terminate the rental agreement with the acquisition of the activities of Ilva Spa and of some subsidiaries acquired according to the agreement closed on October 31st. With explicit reference to difficulties related to legal uncertainty (to stop the criminal shield) and operational (due to decisions by the judges of Taranto), ArcelorMittal, the letter reads, “asked extraordinary commissioners to take responsibility for Ilva's activities and employees within 30 days of receiving the communication ".

"The Government will not allow the closure of Ilva. There are no legal requirements for the withdrawal of the contract. We will immediately convene Mittal in Rome ". It is the position expressed – according to sources present at the table – after the meeting with the ministers Patuanelli, Costa, Provenzano, Catalfo and Speranza with representatives of the MEF, convened by the Ministry of Economic Development on the ArcelorMittal case immediately after the news.

The dossier now moves to Palazzo Chigi, where a new summit is planned with the ministers concerned and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri is also expected.

LETTER TO THE COMMISSIONERS. ArcelorMittal explains that the contract provides that, in the event that a new legislative measure impacts on the environmental level of the Taranto plant to an extent that makes it impossible for it to be managed or the business plan is implemented, the company has the contractual right to withdraw from the same contract. The note mentions, among the reasons that contributed to causing a situation of legal and operational uncertainty, the cancellation of the legal shield for the company and the provisions issued by the criminal court of Taranto which oblige the extraordinary ilva commissioners to complete certain prescriptions by December 13, 2019, "term that the commissioners themselves considered impossible to respect". "Other serious events, independent of the Company's will – the company continues – have contributed to causing a situation of legal and operational uncertainty that has further significantly compromised the ability to carry out necessary interventions at Ilva and to manage the Taranto plant" .

LETTER TO WORKERS. ArcelorMittal writes to employees that "it will be necessary to implement an orderly suspension of all production activities starting from the hot area of ​​the Taranto plant, which is the most exposed to risks deriving from the absence of legal protection". Involved all departments and operational areas that "will be progressively suspended, bearing in mind that the objective of these actions is to keep all the plants in efficiency and ready for their productive restart".

POLITICAL REACTIONS. Matteo Salvini asked the Government to report urgently to Parliament. "If the government taxes, disembarks, and handcuffs, the owners of Ilva will also escape, putting at risk the work of tens of thousands of workers and the industrial future of the country will be a disaster, and the resignation would be the only possible answer. The League asks that Conte come to report urgently to Parliament "underlines the leader of the League. Riccardo Molinari, League leader of the Chamber, increases the dose: “As we feared, they succeeded. They closed Ilva. This government, with its degrowth ideology, is a scourge for the Italian economy and workers ". Mariastella Gelmini, leader of Forza Italia in the Chamber, points the finger at the 5 stars that "should apologize for having finally achieved its goal: they wanted to close Ilva and are succeeding. The accomplices, however, of this crime have no less responsibility: Renzi and Zingaretti, between a conference abroad of the first and a party of the unity of the other, should give explanations ". The president of the Forza Italia senators, Annamaria Bernini, speaks of "the mortal blow to the Italian steel industry", according to which "the strategic goal of the 5 Star Movement to transform Taranto into an industrial cemetery was therefore centered, and how much it is happening is a genuine national shame, a tragedy for employment and development ". Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, says she is "very worried: we must pay close attention to a state that does not keep its commitments. A State that wants to keep the investments must also keep those commitments, otherwise we no longer invest in anyone ".

"I would just like to say to those who voted against the" criminal shield "Ilva – Pd, M5S and Italia Viva – you are irresponsible. You have destroyed the work of years and sent away a 4.2 billion investor from the South, for your 4-bucks political games ", writes ex-Minister of Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, on Twitter. The position of Benedetto Della Vedova, secretary of + Europe, is similar, according to which "to force ArcelorMittal to a widely predictable step was not only the fanatical hostility of the M5s, but the irresponsible condescension of Pd and Italia Viva", for which "Di Maio, Zingaretti and Renzi have equal responsibilities ".

For Matteo Renzi, "Mittal's decision to disengage from Taranto is unacceptable. The Government must immediately remove any alibi from the property by eliminating the own goals like the one on immunity wanted by the old government and on which we had warned Minister Patuanelli ”. The Minister of Agriculture, Teresa Bellanova, asks the multinational to "withdraw
from the announced intentions "and asks" to Conte and Patuanelli immediate action that he will find in me and in Italy. Live full support so that the irreparable does not happen and can be reopened, exactly as Patuanelli had already guaranteed and as I myself had requested, a table free from threats of any kind ”.

THE TRADE UNION REACTIONS. The trade unions are extremely worried, accusing the government of ArcelorMittal's escape from Taranto. The general secretary of the CISL, Annamaria Furlan, calls into question the "responsibility of the Government and of politics", because "we are facing a real industrial, social and environmental disaster". "A masterpiece of incompetence and political fearfulness: do not defuse the environmental bomb and unite a social bomb" adds FIM CISL national secretary Marco Bentivogli. According to Francesca Re David, general secretary of Fiom-Cgil, on Taranto "the behavior of the Government is contradictory is unacceptable: with the Count 1 introduced the criminal protection parallel to the investments and with the Count 2 has canceled the same rule giving the company the excuse to reach this decision. The meeting with the Government, which we have been asking for weeks, now becomes very urgent ". Rocco Palombella, general secretary of Uilm, says the news is "dramatic", but "it was in the air, we expected it after the last government and parliamentary decisions". Because "no company is able to produce in a difficult context, in a heavy climate having all against, from the Government to the Region to the Municipality of Taranto" declares the Uilm leader.