Roman entanglements are a burden on the Italian-German relationship, of all things, before the negotiations, the European heads of government. Because of the previously privately run Italian motorway operators “Autostrade per l’Italia” is it possible to need at a distance a forward of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), and as a consequence, many Italian media to see their country once again as a victim of German blackmail strategies in Europe.
Tobias Piller
economic correspondent for Italy and Greece, with seat in Rome.
F. A. Z.
For “Autostrade per l’Italia” has paid off an ambiguous communication strategy for the time being. The private motorway operator, the bear appears to have been partly to blame for Bridge collapse in Genoa, had the worst fears after the recent announcements of the Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte. Because the wanted to, the company, indirectly controlled by the Benetton family, the concessions for 3000 kilometers of highways to escape and you would have been driven into a spectacular bankruptcy.
on the day of the meeting of Chancellor Merkel with her Italian counterpart, last Monday, in Meseberg, near Berlin, fell to the communicators of the private highway operator to the fact that “Autostrade” in addition to the Benetton’s also still a German minority shareholder, the Allianz insurance group, which, together with partners, 7 percent of the Italian company holds.
The Benetton do not want to prevent the scapegoats to be
If the main shareholders, the Benetton’s were present as the Bogeymen of the Nation, should, at least, the reference to the German shareholders the worst. The intrigue of the “Autostrade” sprang from very innocent-looking Call: “An important message would be to check”, said one of the communicators. “We have indications that Chancellor Merkel will have Meetings with the Prime Minister, Conte also for the Alliance.”
The note with a lot of subjunctive, which contained perhaps only wishful thinking, it was interpreted by the Italian media immediately as a hard message. Italy’s main newspaper “Corriere della Sera”, wrote the day after: “Yesterday, sources reported that in Berlin, Angela Merkel, driven by the local entrepreneurs Association, the Prime Minister had sensitized him and had asked not to make any rash steps that Italy’s credibility could towards foreign investors is undermined.”
Merkel was in Meseberg during the final press conference with Conte, embarrassed, or disappointed, because he had brought Italian journalists in Rome, about Merkel’s power strategies, to fantasize, nothing else in the head had, as Contes threats against the private motorway operators. Merkel closed the press conference finally, with two ironic movements, as opposed to the Italian guest Conte: “today I have rather avoided the word highways, because you asked so much after the highways were, and I don’t know exactly what it is. So: I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s session.“