MILANO – Giorgia Meloni in the test of confrontation with the entrepreneurs of the Italian economic locomotive focuses on highlighting the growth data claiming that “they demonstrate greater reliability than the rest of the Eurozone”.
Speaking at the general assembly of Assolombardaensures that on the Pnrr “we will put the money on the ground at any cost”, that “we will modify the parts that do not go well we will privilege the strategic profile” in investments, and again “we will negotiate with the EU, we will make the necessary rules to overcome the delays and difficulties of local authorities If someone wants to stand by and watch, it will mean that when we’re done they’ll have learned a lesson”.
He therefore invites us to “behave as one man” on the Plan and notes his displeasure at the fact “that it has become a battleground”.
The Prime Minister underlines that she has chosen to be a Milano “because it is necessary to underline the importance of the Italian manufacturing industry at a European and world level”.
Meloni speaks of “indisputable” and even “surprising” sector numbers when it comes to the territory represented by the industrial association of Milan and its surroundings. And he complains that “despite these numbers, we are witnessing an inexplicable tendency to diminish the contribution of Italian industry, while realities outside our national borders are being raised to a point of reference from which you have – he told the audience – nothing to learn. If anything, you have something to teach…”.
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The premier collects the applause of the audience at the passage on the green transition: “It cannot be considered that we to start the ecological transition we can dismantle our economy and our businesses. The ecological transition and environmental sustainability must – he argues – walk hand in hand with social and economic sustainability”, the transition must be made “with man at the centre”.
Always looking at the community agenda, and in particular at raw materials and industry, Meloni notes that we are working with “a joint approach for an EU that today is starting to talk about nothing less than sovereigntywhich was unthinkable a few months ago when it was confused with an autarkic approach, a dangerous tendency of right-wing parties”.
Mayor Sala: “In Europe, integration works and not segregation”
Before the Prime Minister, it was the Milanese mayor Giuseppe Sala who intervened in front of the entrepreneurs. That lashed the government. “I think Milan deserves a little more. It is not a controversy, because it is clear that I am not addressing this government in particular, I am addressing all governments. I believe that at this moment, even after all that has happened with the Covid, even Milan, which is a strong city, needs”. Public transport is at the top of the list for which Sala asks for attention: “To grow we need to look here, Milan is making an extraordinary contribution to the country. We pay 20 billion a year to the treasury in taxes and the Municipality has 200 million left”.
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If there is no polemical vein on the subject, the tones have been more pungent on other points. “I’m curious to see what President Meloni will say – Sala said before the premier’s speech – about what Italy will do on the Mes and on the Pnrr: unfortunately I was easy to guess, I said it almost a year ago. Pnrrwith the difficulties that exist in managing the whole mechanism, (from the Government, ndr) will give money to companies, especially those owned by the public: it’s not that this is a bad thing, but it’s a defeat compared to the possibility that the territories directly invest European funds”. Connected to these issues, there are those on the general position which Rome holds in Europe. “Since the creation of the single European market in the 1990s,” Milan “has been on a wave of growth. So for us any discourse that, with respect to Europe, speaks of closure does not work. Instead, any discourse of integration in Europe works”.
Bonomi: “No veto on the minimum wage, but we over”
“I really liked hearing a different attitude in President Meloni’s words compared to the industry’s narrative”, said the president of Confindustia, Charles Bonomi, speaking at the assembly of Assolombarda. “It is necessary to stimulate investments in industry – remarked Bonomi – not for a corporate issue but because it is in the interest of the country”. Bonomi returned to the hot topic of the minimum wage: “If we want to talk about a minimum wage with a threshold of 9 euros, it’s not a problem for Confindustria. Our contracts are all higher. If we take third-level metalworkers for example, the price is eleven euros. It’s not true that the industry pays little but pays the right amount. There isn’t a veto, on the contrary it’s a great challenge and we’re getting into the thick of the issues”.
On the other hand, he returned to the numbers of the industry the president of Assolombarda, Alessandro Spada, who spoke of “a new small economic miracle made possible by the reactivity and competitiveness of our manufacturing”. Asking Europe to “unlink strategic investments from the Stability Pact”, starting with those in healthcare, he also warned of the sharp increase of interest rates that must be “controlled”: “There must not be an excessive increase”. For Spada, “up to a maximum of 3.5% – he added – is sustainable for businesses, and it also discourages businesses from applying for loans to make investments. If rates grow too much, there is the risk that investments will be postponed”.