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July 15, 2020 The Benetton step backwards opens the agreement on Autostrade per l'Italia. The agreement passes through the entry of Cdp with 51%, which will effectively make Aspi a public company. And from an overall revision of the concession, from compensation to tariffs. It is dawn when, after six hours of very tense meeting and hard discussions, the Council of Ministers mandates Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to start, by 27 July, the path that should lead to the progressive exit of the Benettons, first going down to 10-12% of the shareholding, then with a further dilution coinciding with the listing on the stock exchange of Aspi.

The proposals in Cdm 
Ministers Roberto Gualtieri, who brought the company's final proposal to the CDM table, and Paola De Micheli are given the mandate to define the other aspects of the agreement. To the last, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte holds the revocation weapon on the table: "If the commitments made tonight are not respected, it will be revoked", explains a minister. The latest negotiation between the Prime Minister and the Benettons takes place during the night, during a fiery Council of Ministers that sees the head of government squeezed between suspicions inside the majority, the irritation of Iv and an M5S that looks more like every day a volcano ready to boil.

In Cdm Gualtieri, who describe not contrary in principle to the revocation but convinced that he can find a better solution, brings a new proposal by Aspi. But this is not enough, and a long and very tough negotiation begins, which leads the company to send four different letters to the government during the night to perfect a draft agreement. Conte and also the Five stars, for the part of the corporate structure, immediately declare themselves dissatisfied: the gradual exit of Benetton will require too long a negotiation, according to pentastellate sources. "No division", says a source of government Pd. But among the Dems themselves, the dossier brings tensions. And the climate in Palazzo Chigi becomes heavy.

Tensions in the majority, skip meeting before the CDM
Skip a meeting of the heads of delegation that had been convened before the CDM: they said it was Dario Franceschini who asked to meet directly in the Council, where De Micheli and Gualtieri also sit. The CDM is opened around 11pm and suspended shortly thereafter. This does not go down to Teresa Bellanova, who makes it a question of method: when Conte and Gualtieri meet to decide how to conduct the final negotiation, the head of the delegation of Iv, the only party openly against the revocation, reveals his irritation. But it is above all the irritation in the Movement that emerged during the long night of Chigi: it is also addressed - perhaps above all - to the prime minister, in a crescendo that makes some exponent of the majority hypothesise as possible even the scenario a summer turnaround. Beyond plots and suggestions, Conte plays a lot on the Autostrade dossier. The interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano marked a change of pace in his strategy. And, before the CDM, the premier does not change lines. "Either Aspi accepts the conditions that the government has already submitted to it or there will be revocation", is the latest warning with which Conte enters the Palazzo Chigi meeting. Also because, he says to his parents, "you cannot prevaricate".

The conditions for the agreement
The prime minister is not willing to take steps back on the cut of the motorway tariffs, on the modification of article 35 of the Milleproroghe decree which reduces the compensation in case of revocation from 23 to 7 billion, on the indemnity to raise the Status of claims for compensation linked to the Morandi bridge and on the right of withdrawal, for the future, in the event of serious breaches by the concessionaire, compensating only investments that are not amortized. But the novelty that allows the negotiation to break free concerns the shareholding: the Benettons give availability to the separation of Autostrade from Atlantia, to the simultaneous entry of Cdp into Aspi and to the subsequent listing on the Stock Exchange.

Entry of Cdp
The process, which according to government sources would take place within six months or a year, would take place in two phases: in the first Cdp it would enter with 51% and there would be the spin-off which would carry the weight of the Benetton family between 10 and 12%, the threshold below which one does not enter the Board of Directors; in the second there would be the listing on the stock exchange which should lead to a company with a high diffuse shareholding, up to 50%, in which new shareholders could enter, with a market operation, further lowering the weight of the Benetton family. But on the time range of the release of the Benettons the M5S immediately shows an evident skepticism. "It is too long a time," explains an authoritative source of the Movement. That, already in the afternoon, did not hide the irritation for the management of De Micheli, inserted - in the hypotheses pentastellate - in the farewell box in a possible reshuffle in September.

The letter from Minister De Micheli
Trapela on the same day a letter from March in which the minister pushed for an agreement and asked Conte to act but some of the Dems do not like it: "It is not the initiative of the Democratic Party", say from the party, while several souls emerge among the parliamentary ranks. Around midnight, when the CDM is suspended, the company's proposal still does not convince the government: "It is not enough", the premier observes. But it was decided to negotiate, to the end, to avoid revocation: the negotiation with the "Sherpas" of the Benettons continues in parallel.

The revocation hypothesis is removed
At dawn in the Council of Ministers, after a croissant offered to all colleagues by Vincenzo Spadafora, we read the latest letter sent by the company: "It accepts all government requests", says a minister. The M5s asks until the very end that Benetton really leaves the company. The revocation of the concession is not removed from the table, given that the technical aspects of the negotiation will have to be perfected, but it now seems very far away.