The funeral procession: what remains of the former (now, indeed) Ilva

Throughout all these years – from the Riva family’s handover to special administration, through ArcelorMittal and on to Acciaierie d’Italia – whilst everyone else referred to it as ‘ex-Ilva’, on these pages we have always continued to call it ‘Ilva’. This was the name that continued to be used on all official documents, regardless of the media narrative. Today, however, for the first time, we can begin to refer to it as ex-Ilva. Because with the closure of the hot-rolling area, the plant that for 50 years helped make Italy a major industrial power no longer exists. It took the judiciary to expose a bluff that had lasted for years. It seems absurd to say so, and even more so for Italian steelmakers, who have always rightly explained to us the strategic importance of integrated steel produced in blast furnaces. And it is precisely they who, today – after the Milan Court of Appeal has shut down for good the last blast furnace still operating in Taranto – have organised an ambitious consortium to take over the cold-rolling mills. In effect, this is the very last thing that can be done once the steelworks – the real one – has been allowed to die.

To continue claiming, as now only the trade unions and the PD do, that the (decarbonised) hot-work area is strategic for the country is to ignore reality. In Taranto, the integrated steelmaking process has not existed since December 2025, when Minister Urso’s commissioners decided to launch the so-called ‘short-term plan’ involving the shutdown of blast furnaces and coking plants. According to Minister Urso, the Italian economy is booming. But no one is going to build new plants in Taranto. One might well wonder how it is possible to have gone from the promise of “Europe’s largest green steelworks” to a service centre without so much as a murmur. In Italy, it is easier to cry ‘fascism’ than to call for jobs. Especially when it is certain that redundancy pay will be guaranteed to everyone. Italian entrepreneurs are simply doing their job, stepping in only after having eliminated all criminal, economic, environmental, industrial and political risks. There are no brave captains, only cowardly politicians.