• Ex Ilva, Arcelor Mittal announces the suspension of activities at the Taranto plant
  • Ex Ilva, dramatic situation: Arcelor Mittal communicates the plant closure plan
  • Ilva, Patuanelli: "The right of withdrawal does not exist". And confirms the 'no' M5S to the shield
  • Ilva: the M5S senators open to the penal shield in time, "but ArcelorMittal comes back to negotiate"
  • Ex Ilva, government ready to negotiate
  • Ex Ilva, Count in Taranto amid protests and applause: "We must get out of it big"

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17 November 2019Two investigations have been opened on the former Ilva of Taranto. Following the presentation of the commissioners, both the magistrates of Milan and the prosecutor of Taranto are at work. The hypothesis of crime is the destruction of means of production and facts and behavior that are harmful to the national economy and can be attributed to Arcelor Mittal. Meanwhile, as the pressing of the unions over the government goes up because they are not only focusing on the legal avenues and the policy still reflects on the penal shield, the minister of economic development, Stefano Patuanelli traces the lines of up to where we can push ourselves to favorably close the negotiation.

Minister Patuanelli
On the former Ilva "the country system is at stake and a multinational that thinks it can treat Italy as a colony, acquiring a strategic company and then decree it unilaterally, notwithstanding the contracts and eliminating from the market the competition against which he had won a European tender ". Thus stated Minister Patuanelli, in an interview with the Sole 24 Ore. "I think that more than saying that by removing the shield an alibi was provided, it is more correct to say that the mask was removed from the company, which had planned its disengagement well before - perhaps from the first day - and that today even speaks switch-off, thus compromising the operation of the steel plant ". With regard to the criminal shield, "I personally believe that we can evaluate the inclusion of a norm of primary rank that sets out the principle expressed in Article 51 of the Criminal Code, a principle already present in our system", reiterates Patuanelli. "The impression I have today, however, is that ArcelorMittal does not want protection on crimes committed in the past - which would already be 'shielded' by our legal system - but for those he would have committed in the future".

Resistance
The situation does not let sleepy dreams come to the workers of the Taranto steelworks who are preparing to resist against the closure of the plants. Minister Patuanelli again spoke on the question of redundancies: "With regard to the possibility of replacing redundancies with shock absorbers," for Mittal production of 4 million tons and 5,000 redundancies are structural, not linked to the market. On the other hand - notes the minister - they have recently closed a deal in India to which they have been working for a couple of years for the production of 8/10 million tons, about the quantity that they would have had to reach in Taranto once the environmental plan. What a strange coincidence ".

The pressing of Confindustria
The president of Confindustria, Vincenzo Boccia, who asks "a great operation of realism and common sense, must immediately put back the criminal shield and then invite the company to a confrontation table. The shield is the necessary condition even if not sufficient". "We must tell the country's politics and government that there is no alibi season here, but a season of responsibility and solutions is needed. The problem is' creating the conditions so that the investor does not go away." And on the possible public intervention he added. "What private individuals can do well is better not to let the public do it".

Attorney of Taranto at work
On the ArcelorMittal case, after having initiated the investigation against the unknown, foreshadowing the hypothesis of the crime of destruction of raw materials or industrial products, and of means of production with damage to the national economy, the Taranto Public Prosecutor could order the first inspections in the steelworks of Taranto. "It is serious, we are already moving" commented the chief prosecutor of Taranto, Capristo, an hour after receiving, together with the deputy prosecutor, Carbone, the commissioners of the extraordinary administration Ilva, Ardito, Danovi and Lupo, who presented him with a complaint-report indicating, on ArcelorMittal's part, behaviors that are harmful to the national economy. And within a few hours of receiving the complaint-denunciation of the Ilva commissioners, the inquiry of the Prosecutor of Taranto has taken the first steps already indicating the field of investigation, the one on which the investigations will be made. For the moment there are no investigations, it is true, but the hypothesis of a crime has been identified.

The Milan investigation
On another level there is also the investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor who considered it necessary to intervene by opening an investigation (without suspects and crimes at the moment) to protect the national interest. One of the lighthouses that the Taranto Public Prosecutor's Office has turned on the former Ilva warehouse. We start from the fact that with the sale to ArcelorMittal on 30 October 2018 the multinational had a raw material warehouse worth 500 million and one of spare parts for around 100 million. And such large warehouses, sources close to the dossier observe, are certainly not consumed in a year. Because this is the time so far spent by ArcelorMittal taking over the extraordinary administration. In recent days, alarms have repeatedly been raised by several parties regarding the emptying of the warehouses and the loading of the coils (steel coils, the flagship product of the steelworks of Taranto) for other destinations, Spain has also said. But what really happened must now be verified by the prosecutor. And the commissioners also intend to go to the factory to see how the situation is. And if ArcelorMittal still denies entry, the commissioners want this refusal to be recorded in the minutes.

Minister Hope
The national secretary of Article Uno and Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, also spoke on the question via a post on facebook. "Italy cannot allow the blast furnace of the steelworks in Taranto to be shut down. The right to work and the right to health are guaranteed by our Constitution. They must necessarily be kept together".