A prophecy in 2004, from a friend to Curzio Maltese about Mr. Marchionne the freshly appointed CEO at FIAT, said: “this is the man who will destroy the automotive industry in Italy”. The prophecy comes true, but most of policy makers and journalists show great surprise after years of lauds. 7.6 billion euro State aids to FIAT from 1977, with 2.7 billions from 2007 to 2011 (without accounting for the public spending for thousands layoffs), are only partially balanced by 6.2 billions invested from 1990, CGIA Mestre reported.
The many Marchionne’s supporters in unions, politics and media still hardly believe his clear words and actions on the FIAT’s future outside Italy, while the national government is “waiting for a call” (see the strip below) and the regionals keep on flooding public money on FIAT: large shares of EU POR FESR and POR FAS aids for enterprises in Abruzzo are still promised to Marchionne for a luxury ‘innovation campus’ in Abruzzo, for example.
Vauro’s strip on Manifesto sums up the behaviour of Italian government in front of FIAT, but roused an angry reaction of Minister Fornero for gender discrimination
Critics are the majority outside Italy. After the summer offensive from Volkswagen, Germans confirm their opinions on the eccentric manager wearing dark pullovers who believes innovation and investments are possible in bull’s markets only (Volkswagen earns 18 billion profit this year throug innovation despite the crisis): Marchionne Pinocchio of the day, said Handelsblatt remembering the phantom plan “Fabbrica Italia” of 20 billion euro investments was launched in 2010 and just cancelled in 2012.
