«Orsini’s concreteness and Meloni’s many openings are good»

Roma The concreteness of President Orsini, the numerous and convinced openings of Prime Minister Meloni, the vision of industrial policies, the requests to increase competitiveness, the appeal for a return to nuclear power (“Do you think it is possible to continue paying for energy up to 40 percent more than the European average? – thundered Orsini – We don’t”. And, again, the criticisms of the bureaucracy that slows down growth, the short-sightedness and rigidity of the Green Deal (“Decarbonization pursued even at the price of deindustrialization is a debacle”, said the president of the industrialists. And Meloni: “The ideological approach of the European Green Deal gives disastrous results”).

Buia: «Excellent debut for Orsini. House plan, straight to work»

The Parma delegation that followed the Confindustria assembly left the auditorium of the Parco della musica Ennio Morricone very satisfied. “At his first assembly as president, Orsini perfectly hit the points of concern of the industrial world,” says Gabriele Buia, president of the Parma Industrialists’ Union. “I really liked his report: because it was concrete, precise, detailed. Little philosophy and lots of facts, because Emanuele is a businessman: and he was able to identify the fundamental points to which the government must pay attention immediately. It is clear that growth can only come from the actions implemented by our executive, both in Italy – I am thinking of the next budget law – and in Europe, to resolve some situations that affect the Italian industry and that are a source of great concern.”

“Having heard the speech of President Meloni, who shared Orsini’s concerns and the need to intervene on several “hot” topics – continues Buia – I really think that we can do many things together: the goal is to bring Italian companies to churn out positive numbers. Let’s not forget that today, even with a bit of concern, our results are the best in Europe. The goal we are all aiming for is to make this country grow, which has so many excellent examples, but which needs to be supported by concrete industrial policies. The Prime Minister’s openness on many of the topics raised by Orsini gives us hope”.

“I am very pleased with the unity of intent on the issue of housing – continues the president of the industrialists of Parma – since I have been delegated by president Orsini to follow it personally. It is a very important issue: I am thinking of homes for the families of workers and for students, who will be the future of production activity. From Meloni’s very open declarations I understood that we can get to work, together with the government, immediately. We must find concrete solutions because it is a social problem that must be solved: human resources are fundamental for the world of industry, it is our duty to start from the problem of housing”.

Sassi: «An assembly of great contents»

Annalisa Sassi, vice president of Confindustria, is very satisfied to have attended «an assembly of great content, which highlighted the vision of a structured industrial policy» and appreciated «the concreteness of President Orsini’s report». «It is important that the request to make a plan was put forward
for energy – he explains – and also that the topic of Italy’s role within the context, at this very complex moment, of the international market was addressed. I also appreciated how Orsini
he listed the needs of the business fabric, or of the reflections on the automotive sector: an entire sector is being dismantled,
with very heavy impacts on numerous supply chains”.

“In Meloni’s speech,” concludes Annalisa Sassi, “I really liked to note how attentive she is to the needs of the industrial world and how convinced she is that the role of businesses is fundamental for the growth of the country. Meloni is very attentive to economic policy issues, I am convinced that her government will be able to support businesses and give a direction to growth. And this is very important.”

Baroni: «Businesses and social care»

“A beautiful assembly,” Giovanni Baroni, president of the Small Industry of Confindustria, calls it. “Orsini managed to touch on many important issues, from productivity, in Italy and in Europe, to the “brakes” that block businesses, to the way in which Europe intends to manage the ecological transition, making decarbonization coincide with deindustrialization. However, he also spoke about values, about business culture, about attention to social issues: that is, what I think characterizes Italian industry today: and it is no coincidence that in her speech, Giorgia Meloni spoke about Adriano Olivetti.”

“Emanuele has shown, as always, a great communication ability – continues Baroni -; Meloni was very effective and said some things that were not at all obvious: for example, the fact that wealth is created by industry, not by politics. It is exactly like that, even if quite a few politicians think the opposite. And then, she recognized entrepreneurs’ social role and gave great openings, commenting on our president’s report”.

“I also found the passage on Artificial Intelligence very interesting,” he concludes, “I absolutely agree that it raises very serious questions also in terms of democracy and information control. Of course, Italy cannot remain an island, it certainly cannot miss the train of the use of AI: indeed, for our companies it could be one of the elements that help to recover competitiveness.”

Boschi: «We need serious industrial policies»

Umberto Boschi, vice president of the Industrial Union, also appreciated the concreteness of the interventions and the common vision on many issues. “There are all good intentions: now – as the prime minister said – it’s a matter of putting everything on the ground. Personally, I agree with Orsini: Italy has great possibilities to do well, indeed always better, but it needs to be supported by industrial policies that allow companies to be competitive. How can they be, if they continue to pay 40 percent more for energy than the European average?”

“I appreciated Meloni’s agreement,” Boschi continued, “with regard to many of the topics touched upon by Orsini. She said clearly and loudly that the State must act as a State, not think about starting to create industry: and acting as a State means creating a scenario in which businesses can operate, in a healthy and competitive environment.”

Azzali: «On many points convergence with the government»

“I believe that this year’s assembly is an important starting point for changing the direction of the choices to be made by the industrial world and the government, starting from the consideration that on many points there has been a convergence that does not seem to be an instrumental convergence at all”, comments Cesare Azzali, director of the Industrial Union. “From this point of view, in light of the openness declared by the Prime Minister, I believe that there are good reasons to think that the path of planning Confindustria’s activities for the coming years, with constant dialogue with the government, despite the distinction of roles, can give further impetus to the relaunch of our economy. An economy that – as has been rightly underlined – is reacting well, despite the difficulties of the moment”.

Cattani: «Competitiveness, productivity and society»

“Excellent meeting by President Orsini who placed three concepts at the center of his speech: competitiveness, productivity and society; values ​​in which the pharmaceutical industry completely identifies and on which it is building its success”: is the comment of the president of Farmindustria, Marcello Cattani. “It is the contribution we are giving to the nation in terms of production value, exports and employment growth. Pharmaceuticals is the first sector in the 2022-24 period for production growth and is the second sector in the active balance for foreign trade in the first half of this year. Therefore, the growth of the country’s economy passes through these dimensions”.

Cattani also defined as “excellent” the speech by President Meloni who “spoke of Europe and the need to defend the competitiveness and productivity of the industrial sector and the ability to innovate but always with attention to the individual and society, and on this the corporate social responsibility of the pharmaceutical sector is extraordinary: it is the first sector for environmental sustainability policies in the last decade, but above all it is the first sector that has a very efficient collective bargaining tool at the contract and corporate welfare level with extraordinary data on inclusion, diversity and defense of female work”.