From the Green Deal to the gross domestic product, from the new executive vice-president Fitto to the “Draghi plan” for Europe. Forty minutes is the length of the speech that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gave this morning in Rome on the occasion of the Confindustria 2024 assembly. From the stage of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Prime Minister repeatedly congratulated the President of Confindustria Emanuele Orsini: “I share many ideas and proposals, as well as the analysis of the scenarios and the proposals and risks that the Italian and European economies are running”. One of the key points, taken up by Meloni himself, is the line that Orsini dedicates to the Green Deal, the set of initiatives proposed at European level to try to achieve the net zero emissions by 2050.
The Green Deal? “Disastrous result of an ideological approach”
“Transitions raise fundamental industrial, political and ethical questions that we can no longer ignore,” the president of the industrialists' organization had said a few minutes earlier. “The Green Deal is full of too many mistakes that have put and continue to put industry at risk. We believe that this is no one's goal. Pursuing decarbonization, even at the cost of deindustrialization, is a debacle.” A weakness in European policy that the Prime Minister also emphasizes, highlighting the “disastrous results resulting from an ideological approach to the European Green Deal.” The next step, however, is not abandoning the goal but rather “committing to correcting these choices.” Without sparing any blows, especially towards the most extremist supporters of the Green Deal: “Do we want to say that this is not a very smart strategy? Friends of Europe must have the courage to say things that do not work.”
The ecological transition and the reference to Draghi
According to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the energy transition must therefore be achieved while ensuring that growth is not jeopardised. And here he quotes Mario Draghi and his latest report on European competitiveness: “Ambitious environmental objectives must be accompanied by adequate investments and resources. It doesn't make much sense to have strategies and not create tools to implement them: without tools, nothing can ultimately be done.” And it is the Prime Minister herself who puts forward a possible path: technological neutrality. “We need all technologies to transform the linear economy into a circular economy,” is her position. Which means renewable energies, gas, biofuels, hydrogen, CO2 capture. But also nuclear energy, which has “great prospects for producing clean and unlimited energy in the not-so-distant future.” And the last line: “We are the homeland of Enrico Fermi. If we don't do it, who should? We are second to none.”
But to achieve this transition, it is essential to avoid the dismantling of the industrial sector: the green commitment “cannot mean the destruction of thousands of jobs, the dismantling of entire industrial sectors that produce wealth and employment”. And as a clear example, he cites the end of the internal combustion engine in cars by 2035, “a clear example of this self-destructive approach”. But the Prime Minister remains aware that the transformation is inevitable: “We must be ready for the change that is underway, which could accelerate in the near future. I am thinking of the automotive sector, which is leaving the consumption of young people and is no longer their priority. We need a clear vision in Italy, in Europe, in the West.”
Confidence in the future “but without childish triumphalism”
The Prime Minister also devotes a few words to GDP, which is expected to grow by 1% in 2024, double the European average. “I am convinced that we can do something better than the Commission's forecasts,” is how Meloni relaunches the challenge. “I continue to believe that +1% of GDP is within our reach, especially after the first two quarters. Any triumphalism would be childish, but it should not be taken for granted after years spent at the bottom of the rankings.” And he does not even fail to emphasize how he intends to open a new season: “There will be no bonus for the renovation of the second or third house or citizen's income. Saying enough about this habit of throwing money out the window to obtain an easy consensus is an advantage for those who have a legislature, and not a year, to build their vision.”
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