Assolombarda celebrates Meloni, but industrial policy is conspicuous by its absence

Yesterday was a morning well spent for Giorgia Meloni. Milan is not an easy place for the centre-right (polls for the upcoming local elections even suggest a centre-left victory in the first round), but the Prime Minister shows no sign of giving up. She had previously attended Assolombarda’s annual meeting and, naturally, returned yesterday to gauge the mood amongst the business community in Milan, Lodi, Monza and Pavia in the run-up to the elections.

Nineteen hundred industrialists – ranging from major figures (Emma Marcegaglia, Marco Tronchetti Provera, Veronica Squinzi and Fedele Confalonieri) to smaller players – packed the Teatro Dal Verme and showered her with applause. To such an extent that even the most cynical of observers would have had no hesitation yesterday in agreeing that there is absolutely no contest between her and the leaders of the broad coalition. Businesses like Meloni even though there is no effective energy policy, even though industrial policy is conspicuous by its absence, and even though the Prime Minister herself has solemnly promised artisans a reform that risks causing Confindustria to lose thousands of members. After all, these are mere details; what impressed the Milanese business leaders was, instead, Meloni’s international stance, her knowledge of the issues and even her self-deprecating humour.

Stepping down from the raised platform the organisers had set up for her behind the podium, she turned to the audience and quipped: “They’ve underestimated me. I’m not exactly a dwarf.” Meloni spoke after the president of Assolombarda, Alvise Biffi. It must be said that she had a smooth ride. Biffi’s speech contained no stumbling blocks for her, not even the traditional litany of local business demands (known in the trade as ‘the shopping list’). Indeed, the host had even thanked her because ‘you have no idea how many doors your name has opened for us around the world’. The vision that Biffi outlined to his supporters and his distinguished guest is that Italian manufacturing – particularly the sector producing machinery and robots – will not only avoid being sidelined by developments in artificial intelligence but can make a powerful comeback through physical AI. “Manufacturing is not a thing of the past but the place of the future.” And Milan can aspire to become the ‘factory of AI’, ‘a new Silicon Valley’. It is therefore a question of providing housing for talent by allowing them to claim rent as a tax deduction, of extending the productivity gains brought about by new technology to SMEs, of considering a national law on metropolitan cities (calling it the ‘Milan Law’ brings bad luck) and of asking the banks ‘to stand by our side’. In Biffi’s vision, there is no Trump, no Putin, no Western democracies on the brink of collapse, no France which, in the hands of Le Pen or Mélenchon, could overwhelm Europe, and no risks posed by the uncontrollability of artificial intelligence itself.

There is the overwhelming power of AI, which pays no heed to geopolitics and, fortunately for us, intersects with the fortunes of Italian industry, providing it with a new and unmissable opportunity. “With physical AI, technology is once again engaging with manufacturing, and now the real game begins for us.” Given this situation, for Giorgia Meloni, the morning in Milan could only be the walk in the park we were talking about. She was able to reel off her repertoire on Europe, the ETS, the Mattei Plan and nuclear power with absolute ease. “If a steelworks closes in Lombardy and we have to buy steel from abroad, it’s not as though the planet stands to gain from it.” She then acknowledged that Biffi had “raised the bar” and set out a bold vision for development. “I regard all your initiatives with respect, especially if they originate in Milan,” she emphasised. She gradually basked in the audience’s applause, whilst reminding them, with a certain frankness, that “foreign policy is the most effective tool for paving the way for businesses, and without my work you would not be able to achieve the results you boast of”. And I say this, she added, in the face of those who “criticise me for devoting too much time to foreign policy”.