Confindustria on the line between Garrone and Orsini, ten votes apart

TORINO — Nobody has victory in their pocket, also because the choice of the excluded Antonio Gozzi not to appeal and open negotiations with the two remaining in the running keeps the situation open. There are those who feel closer to the presidency of Confindustria, like the number one of Erg and of Sun 24 Hours, Edoardo Garrone, who considers himself to have a dozen more preferences among the 185 delegates of the General Council of Viale dell’Astronomia than the wood and ham entrepreneur, as well as outgoing vice-president, the Emilian Emanuele Orsini. The calculations, however, are made by the supporters of Garrone, who boasts the hard core of Assolombarda, the North-West and Romagna. Orsini’s supporters are convinced that they have already done it and that they have the majority of votes.

As a failed aspiring president of Viale dell’Astronomia, the other Ligurian, the number one of Federacciai and Duferco Gozzi, turns the page. Yesterday he sent a letter to the arbitrators of Confindustria to ask for further clarification regarding the resolutions that the wise men did not accept. The man who represents the steel industry knows he will get no satisfaction over what he sees as an unfair exclusion. He is determined, however, not to appeal to the ordinary judiciary. A question of respect for the role he holds, in Federacciai, and for Confindustria itself. This doesn’t mean he’ll leave the scene.

Gozzi met his supporters yesterday to take stock and decide whether and how to give support to one of the other two. «The next presidency needs to put manufacturing at the centre», he says, and then «there needs to be a strong oversight of European policies». Whoever between Garrone and Orsini responds to these requests could win a share of the votes. Gozzi mentions the visit on Tuesday of Enrico Letta, appointed by the Council of the European Union to be the author of the Report on the future of the European single market, in Assolombarda. And he criticizes the “abstract and blurred” lines, and the “policies that have greatly weakened European industry”. The meeting with supporters for Gozzi was a way to deny the rumors of an agreement already made with Orsini to be deputy. At most, in Orsini’s team, if he is chosen in the General Council on 4 April, there could be space for supporters of the president of Federacciai, as well as some big names in the sector, such as Giuseppe Pasini. A deputy will come from Veneto Est, an association that brings together Treviso, Padua and Venice, regrouped under the name of Orsini. And it could be number one, Leopoldo Destro.

Not all the votes of the former Gozzi bloc will move in a compact manner, even if being against the noble entrepreneurship of the North, represented by Emma Marcegaglia, and the not always transparent mechanisms of Confindustria, is a good glue. This is the case of Brescia, which is divided, and Varese, where four would go to Garrone who, two days ago, also won against Liguria. And even in Veneto there are those who say that compactness is only a facade. Orsini, however, is counting on the work done in the South by former president Antonio d’Amato and on the votes of state subsidiaries. A preference for him emerges from the ministries. Some of the big industrialists fear that the Meloni government will prefer the Emilian to have an even softer president in Viale dell’Astronomia.