However she took taste in turn the sunlights

This morning, Emma Marcegaglia, President of the powerful Confindustria, the Italian Medef, plays an important part. The General Assembly which opens in the very chic auditorium designed by Renzo Piano, the Parioli Hill and the banks of the Tiber, in Rome, will be the time for a first balance sheet for the patron saint of the patterns, elected for two years and received at mid-term. Time, also, to seek a new impetus. Because if his peers, meeting yesterday in camera, it have confirmed its position for the two remaining years - unanimously as the tradition-, the frond rises in the ranks. Elected President at the age of forty-two years, with 99.2 of the vote - a score "Bulgarian", as the Italians - one that is dubbed "Black & Decker", due to his fearless temperament, in annoys more than one. His predecessor, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, President of Ferrari, was a champion of the communication, but it was probably a little too much. The head of the family business, European leader in steel tubes (more than 4 billion euros in sales, employees 6500), Emma Marcegaglia was chosen to "back the Confindustria to work", said his entourage. However she took taste, in turn, the "sunlights. And, at the risk of offending his own troops, it has the main unions. A month ago, she went to the Congress of the largest Confederation of the country, the CGIL, in Rimini, which was never seen. Exchange of good process, this morning the main representatives of employees attend the management track. A tactical challenge is not the first of this energetic quadragénaire.

Ambitions killed in egg

On the political level, the number one of the Confindustria first wanted to play hand in hand with Silvio Berlusconi. The coincidence of the calendars was for many: when it came to power in spring 2008, the legislative campaign beat its full in Italy, following the resignation of Romano Prodi's Government. And, a few weeks later, the "Cavaliere" assumed, for the fourth time in his career, the costume of head of Government. A true boulevard, opened in the spirit of the young patroness of patterns, for tax cuts and more flexibility on the labour market. To accept the high spheres of power, Emma Marcegaglia shot a motherboard, in deciding to contribute to height of EUR 10 million to the rescue of Alitalia plan, one of the biggest records of the beginning of the legislature. And of even a year earlier, on the eve of the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, Laurence Parisot was was welcomed "with enthusiasm" of the "new page" opened in France, Emma Marcegaglia saw in the victory of Silvio Berlusconi "a situation favourable to change" and the unprecedented opportunity "to revive" the Italy.

Unfortunately, the financial crisis broke a few months later, killing in the egg its great ambitions. To the harsh social and economic realities emerged in the fall of 2008, two of its major claims were referred to the stalling by the Roman Executive: suppression of regional tax on productive activities (Irap), the transalpine professional tax, and the relaxation of the procedures for dismissal in undertakings with more than 15 employees. In May 2009, the "Cavaliere" him indeed made clear who was the true boss. Arriving to the General Assembly of the Confindustria, as planned to do so again this morning, Silvio Berlusconi compares then Emma Marcegaglia at the "veline", these decerebrate manikins occupying permanent TV trays Italians. Worse, it reveals to the tribune that she had come to the see the previous evening at the palazzo Chigi, the Italian Matignon, for him to read his speech. Management settings are not yet recovered from this session of humiliation. Therefore, critics began to rain on "the" Marcegaglia, as it is customary to appoint women across the Alps.

An autocratic practice

Among the main criticisms of immobility. Severe, given the conditions. That, too, too autocratic practice of its function. The President is working with a small guard reconciled, framed by two former journalists have become recently co-directors of communication Rinaldo Arpisella, spokesman for fifteen years of the Group Marcegaglia, and Roberto Iotti, former editor in Chief of the economic newspaper "Il Sole 24 Ore". Why not Except that it attracted of enmities by deliberately cutting bridges with the period Montezemolo. Thus, several managers in the Organization have their suitcases. And is perhaps not a coincidence if the latter immediately found a drop point, at palazzo Chigi, the League football or in large public companies.

Is side, specifically, that also crystallize opposition to Emma Marcegaglia. And more precisely on the oil group ENI, headed for another year by Paolo Scaroni, which sits in the management bodies under the ambiguous title of "delegate in charge of developing the major scenarios." Many lend to the latter, named Saint-Gobain former later Director General of the national electrician Enel, the ambition to conquer the Confindustria, to help his friend Giulio Tremonti, the current Minister of finance, to plan for after Berlusconi. Is this a coincidence Relatives of Paolo Scaroni have recently taken control of strategic territorial employers associations, in Milan, Venice and Genoa including. Regions which weigh heavily in the next general election management, through the ongoing contributions reform. In 2012, they do will be more calculated payroll of the business, but on their added value, which will give more weight to the rich regions of the North.

This is not the least of the paradoxes of the Confindustria than to rely, among its members, all groups controlled by the State, contrary to the common practice in Europe. ENI and Enel, Finmeccanica defence and aeronautics manufacturer, Poste Italiane, Ferrovie dello Stato. They are, de facto, first financial contributors to the budget of the Organization, which does not lack to grind the teeth of private entrepreneurs. "Public enterprises are monopolistic interests opposed to what want millions of SMEs of Italy, deplores the pattern of a large side group. In this case, the Confindustria, which is supposed to carry the flag of liberalization, has lost all credibility. ""Rarely in its history the Confindustria has given her the image of such a field of battle", stressed Monday"La Repubblica"in its economic editorial, denouncing a structure"baroque", a"worthy of the Politburo bureaucratic Mastodon ". It is perhaps to correct this impression that Emma Marcegaglia comes to enter on its leader Executive Giorgio Squinzi, of a company of size medium, specialized in the construction materials, and John Elkann, heir of the Agnelli family and new Chairman of Fiat. One thing is certain, the Italian employers is not a contradiction about. If he is constantly claiming the State to reduce its spending, it was careful to refuse the subsidy of 120,000 euros the Government granted him to start early May the festivities organized to celebrate its 100th anniversary!

The anomaly "Il Sole".

Another curiosity, the venerable Confindustria engages in activities that go beyond the strict vested field to the social partners. She is the owner of the Luiss in Rome, second private to Italy after the Milan's Bocconi University. It has IMQ, a certification of industrial products company. And then she owns 67.5 of the Il Sole 24 Ore group, that it has introduced on the stock exchange late 2007 while retaining 100 of the voting rights. "Strange, for defenders of free competition", observes, goguenard, a Milanese honcho. "A total anomaly", said another. There is not only the economic daily of the same name (best 300,000 sold each day, including Sundays), but also a radio, a news agency, a House Publishing and specialized magazines. With a turnover of EUR 500 million, "Il Sole 24 Ore" gives a considerable strength to the Confindustria and explains, in part, why its leader is considered the fifth character of the State. And why Silvio Berlusconi, always clever, came to suggest early May the Chair of Minister of industry, that the complainant refused to immediately. No remains, however, that, with the crisis, "Il Sole 24 Ore" has plunged into the red and suffered nearly 53 million euros in losses last year. At the time, the members of the Confindustria wonder whether it is reasonable to continue this adventure. As the organization maintains total secrecy on its own accounts. According to Filippo Astone, journalist for the weekly "Il mondo", which was last Friday a book very documented on the subject (), the annual contributions collected by the Confindustria exceed EUR 500 million. "Many waited Emma Marcegaglia it reform an aging structure, provides, finally chose to carve out a role of leader alone, it is a great disappointment."