All pressing on FCA. Gualtieri: asked for commitments

    (ANSA) - TURIN, MAY 18 - "Additional and stringent conditions" on investments, employment and the maintenance of production in Italy.
    While the political storm on the 6.3 billion euro loan to FCA with public guarantees has not subsided, blessed by the stock exchange, the Minister of Economy, Roberto Gualtieri assures that the state has asked for specific commitments from the company.
    "We told Fiat that with the loan we have to pay for investments in Italy," he explained, and "we said 'no' to relocations. The state guarantee is linked to these conditions".
    The government would therefore have already responded to trade unions and political forces that strongly demand, almost in unison, that the loan has as a condition the commitment to guarantee employment in Italian plants. The Minister for the South, Giuseppe Provenzano, also dedicates a long Facebook post to the story. In Piazza Affari, the stock flies to the stock exchange and closes the opening session of the week with a + 8.19% at 7.79 euros.
    "All loans to businesses, such as that requested by FCA, must have" precise conditionalities: that they are finalized, that there are no relocations, that employment levels are guaranteed, that factories are not closed ", says the general secretary of the CGLL , Maurizio Landini. For the CISL the loan request is "absolutely legitimate, but - underlines the general secretary Annamaria Furlan - there must firstly be a commitment to maintaining employment levels in the Italian factories. It is also necessary to verify carefully by the state that the resources are used exclusively for productive investments in our country. "
    Minister Provenzano explains that" the government has provided for certain conditionalities in the various decrees, namely: to have its registered office in Italy, do not distribute dividends, commit to direct those loans to protect employment and production capacity in our country. Today, FCA is not (anymore) an Italian industrial champion but a multinational with investments all over the world, registered office in London and tax in the Netherlands. Nobody, apart from some senior executives of the Revenue Agency and the international management of FCA, knows exactly how the profits of the various branches are distributed and how the tax burden is distributed in the various countries in which it operates. "It defends the choice of the political leader of the M5S, Vito Crimi, says: "We are witnessing the surreal squirming by those in government when FCA decided to post its headquarters abroad. If anyone believes that it is necessary to impose further conditions, make a proposal: we are ready to support it. "" We defend Italy, development and work. This is the common thread of all our actions. Never as in this phase is it right and necessary to put in place all the possible tools to encourage investments and safeguard employment in Italy ", agrees the secretary of the Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti. He has no doubts about the legitimacy of the request of FCA Matteo Renzi: "If you ask a loan from the 6.3 billion banks to invest in Italy and keep the factories open - he notes - this is good news. Evoking the 'strong powers' and the 'interests of the bosses' is ridiculous. I would have been worried if he had not done so. "" No wonder on which side Renzi is with if FCA or with those who criticize the choice that the company asks for the state guarantee for the loan, "comments the spokesman for the Italian Left, Nicola Fratoianni.
    The opposition political forces also insist on the need for a close relationship between the loan obtained and the strengthening of the presence in Italy. For Giorgia Meloni, president of Fratelli d'Italia, "given that Conte makes a dpcm on anything , could make a nice decree to say those resources you take them if they are tied in Italy. If not, nothing.
    "Given the size of the request and the employment interests at stake, Mara Carfagna, vice president of the Chamber and deputy of Forza Italia, agrees to put a clear condition on the state: an investment plan in the country and a relaunch strategy adapted to the future of the auto industry and to the activity of Italian factories ".