ROME. At the last useful moment, a handful of hours from the mandatory deadline for the presentation of the Poste list, the majority of the Meloni government reached an agreement on the appointments in the large state-owned companies. It was supposed to be the decision-making premier’s victory across the board, the result was the most classic of compromises. Matteo Salvini, galvanized by the good result of the League in the electoral test in Friuli, put his foot down in tandem with the evergreen plenipotentiary of the Cavaliere Gianni Letta. At dinner time there is only a margin of uncertainty on two boxes, both dear to the premier. The first: the fate of Stefano Donnarumma, the current CEO of Terna, who as a candidate to lead Enel could find himself demoted to a minor subsidiary. And the promotion of Giuseppina di Foggia, who could be the first woman at the operational helm of a large company owned by the state: so far they have only had access to presidencies. According to the latest rumors, Donarumma could be sacrificed to make room for Di Foggia.
On the other hand, no surprises for Eni: Claudio Descalzi will be confirmed as CEO for the fourth time. His name has never been in question. Descalzi has on his side the impeccable management of the energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although a historical partner of Moscow, Descalzi’s ENI has made a fundamental contribution to the strengthening of supplies from Algeria and to the new agreements for the supply of liquid gas from Mozambique and Angola. The general commander of the Guardia di Finanza Giuseppe Zafarana is promoted to the presidency of ENI, leaving the corps. He will be replaced by Andrea De Gennaro, brother of the better known Gianni, former head of the police.
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The decision on Enel was the most painful. Francesco Starace’s long season has made the company grow but has also increased its debt, to the point of hypothesizing – as they discuss in the palaces – a probable capital increase. Well: Giorgia Meloni had promised to promote Stefano Donnarumma in place of Francesco Starace, already number one at Acea and currently at the top of Terna. He had to deal with a less than brilliant judgment of the markets on his work and the excessive political exposure in favor of the Brothers of Italy: the participation in a party convention and having signed a piece of the program was fatal for him electoral. For a long time the hypothesis cherished by Giancarlo Giorgetti was to put Luigi Ferraris in his place, former head of finance at Enel and number one at Ferrovie. The solution had the advantage of freeing up a tempting box for the Minister of Infrastructure (Matteo Salvini), but it would have meant changing the entire Ferrovie management team, which already has to renew the top management of the Trenitalia and Rfi subsidiaries. And so a man who had denied being in the running came out of the hat: Flavio Cattaneo, former head of Terna, Telecom and architect of the rebirth of Italo. In addition to the long managerial experience, the excellent relations in Milan weighed in favor of Cattaneo: Cattaneo is a friend of Ignazio La Russa and esteemed by Giancarlo Giorgetti and Giulio Tremonti. Cattaneo will be joined as president by Paolo Scaroni, very close to Silvio Berlusconi, well regarded by the League, today president of Milan but above all father of the agreements which in 2006 made the six-legged dog the first customer in the world of the Russian Gazprom. Meloni tried for a long time to oppose his return, but had to give in to the Berlusconi-Salvini pincer.
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Lombard hilarious
The other difficult match was the one for Leonardo’s guide. Since Christmas (this newspaper had revealed it) Meloni’s decision to appoint the physicist and former minister of ecological transition Roberto Cingolani, who in the previous months had been head of research at Leonardo himself, was known. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, a friend of Meloni, would have preferred a choice in continuity with the company’s history: Lorenzo Mariani, head of the Mbda missile consortium. In this case Meloni did not listen to reasons, imposing Cingolani. With the latter, the Prime Minister had made a commitment during the handover of the Draghi government, when she asked the outgoing minister to lend a hand to the new one (Gilberto Pichetto Fratin) to manage the energy diversification dossier. As happened with the banker Alessandro Profumo, Leonardo is entrusted to a person who does not come from the sector. Cingolani, nanotechnologist and founder of the Italian Institute of Technology, is convinced that Leonardo’s defense sector walks on his legs, while he must believe in the most innovative businesses: cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, the creation of large computers and nuclear technology , an old fascination of the former minister, who believes in the development of small fourth generation reactors.
Finally Post Office and Terna. At the helm of the first remains Matteo Del Fante, who with Descalzi is the other survivor of the rule of the spoil system. The chairman will be Silvia Rovere, until now chairman of Assoimmobiliare and former head of the financial sector of the State Treasury subsidiary. Terna’s box is the one that could reserve surprises until tomorrow, when the list will be presented by the parent company Cassa depositi e prestiti. In the chats of the parliamentarians, the confirmation of Donnarumma and the appointment as president of the number two of Nokia Italia Giuseppina Di Foggia are taken for granted. However, a different solution is also circulating in the buildings: Di Foggia would be promoted to managing director, president Igor De Biasio would be chosen from the Lega share, hitherto a director of Rai. True or not, the hypothesis underlines a fact: once the negotiation on the first tier appointments has ended, that for all the other seats has already begun, starting with public television.
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