On Ilva: less Schlein, more Salis

Last week in Brussels, Giorgia Meloni stated that since the start of its term, this government has allocated 5 billion to Ilva. Any opposition party would have asked her how the funds had been spent, given that, according to the Court of Cassation, there was still asbestos and emissions. And above all, given that not a single cent remained in the special administration’s coffers, with workers on unemployment benefit and the plants shut down even before the ruling. Instead, the leader of the opposition, Elly Schlein, wanted even more: “After four years in which this government has done nothing and has not put a single euro towards finding solutions for the people of Taranto, for the workers of the former Ilva and the related industries, we now need clear answers and prospects that respect that ruling, the health of the people of Taranto, and the dignity of those workers – both men and women – who deserve definite answers”.

However, why not provide these answers yourself in the meantime? As Silvia Salis, the mayor of Genoa, did in a more concrete manner: “The sale procedure must be finalised as a matter of the utmost urgency, as the outcome will determine the safeguarding of steel production – a strategic sector for the country – the redevelopment of the plants and, above all, the future of thousands of workers and their families. The continued operation of the Genoa plant can be guaranteed by temporarily sourcing raw materials from abroad as well’. At the negotiating table with the government, Salis proposed securing supplies of coils from abroad to be processed in the Genoa rolling mills. The cold-rolling mills in the north can, in fact, be saved by making them independent of Taranto. As for the integrated steelmaking process, however, there is no hope left. The only ones to have said this, for at least two years, are Carlo Calenda and the General Secretary of the UIL, Pierpaolo Bombardieri. Meanwhile, everyone else – the PD and the trade unions – continue to chase Urso’s fairy tale of Europe’s largest green steelworks.