Marcegaglia al Financial Times: riforme o sarà fallimento

L'Italia "ha bisogno di una riforma così profonda che non solo questo governo, ma anche tutti quelli precedenti se ne sono tenuti lontani. Saranno riforme profonde e impopolari. Ma il paese deve restare unito per realizzarle, dobbiamo aumentare il nostro tasso di crescita o cadremo tutti insieme". È il monito del presidente di Confindustria Emma Marcegaglia in un'intervista al 'Financial Times' in cui evidenzia la sfiducia del mondo imprenditoriale verso le possibilità che la politica risponda alle richieste del paese. Ricordando il recente sondaggio condotto fra 6 mila iscritti a Confindustria, la Marcegaglia sottolinea che "il messaggio è stato chiaro: c'è una sfiducia totale nella politica, il mondo degli affari si sente abbandonato dal governo e l'unica soluzione è cavarcela da soli". "La situazione è molto seria, nessuno crede che il governo ci guiderà" fuori dalla crisi, aggiunge.

 L'intervista del Financial Times a Emma Marcegaglia, a cura di Rachel Sanderson

‘We must change – or everyone will go down together’
To sum up the mood in Italian business, Emma Marcegaglia, head of Confindustria, the influential industry forum, refers to a survey she recently commissioned of 6,000 of its members. “The message was clear. There is a total distrust in politics, the business community feels abandoned by the government and the only solution is to get on with it ourselves. No one believes government will lead. The situation is very serious,” Ms Marcegaglia tells the Financial Times at her company’s headquarters in Mantua province, east of Milan.
Ms Marcegaglia, 45, whose father founded her family’s eponymous steel parts group, says this loss of faith has been deepened by the failure of politicians on all sides to include in the austerity budget cuts to their own expenses. Confindustria’s members are just as angered by politicians’ failure to sanction a liberalisation of Italy’s professions – from lawyers to pharmacists – whose protected status is often cited by supranational organisations as a reason for Italy’s parlous growth rate of little more than 1 per cent over the past decade.
These failures, in Ms Marcegaglia’s view, are “intolerable” and “totally unacceptable” but also short-sighted, because Italy requires such steps to stem a decline already being felt by small-business owners and families.
“We need reform so deep that not only this government but all governments before it have shied away from it. These reforms will be deep and unpopular. But the country needs to pull together to make them happen. We must increase our growth rate – or everyone will go down together,” Ms Marcegaglia says.
Senior executives and bankers view the market response to the sovereign debt crisis that buffeted Italy’s shores in the past month – and forced the government to pass the austerity bill in record time – as an over-reaction.
They see it as having been fuelled by panic over Italy’s 120 per cent ratio of debt to gross domestic product but failing to take into account a shrinking public deficit of less than 5 per cent and a banking sector that has undertaken recapitalisation of more than €10bn ($14.5bn) since May.
Nonetheless, they share Ms Marcegaglia’s concerns about a system commonly described as “blocked”. As Mario Draghi, the Bank of Italy governor, has outlined, this has manifested itself in a lack of meritocracy, a dearth of women in the workplace and few opportunities for university leavers. So much so that one of the most discussed trends among business owners and graduates alike is leaving Italy to seek better prospects elsewhere.