From Europe comes the ban on gasoline and diesel cars from 2035, and the Italian government does not seem to take it well. From Antonio Tajani to Adolfo Urso, the EU line is considered far from reality, even though this provision – which is one of the pillars of Ursula von der Leyen’s Green Deal (and in this case of the ‘Fit for 55’ package in cutting emissions ) – the go-ahead from the Council of the EU is still missing. The reasoning that follows, in addition to reflecting on the need for an ecological transition in balance with safeguarding the automotive production chain and at the same time consistent with maintaining employment levels, is to respond in practice with a counterpoint – proposal. A hypothesis still to be built, but which may be the right one to fulfill the obligations, and with which to try to reconcile environmental, economic and work sustainability in the right measure.
And so that’s what you guess reading the words of the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Urso, according to which the times and methods dictated by the EU “do not coincide with reality”; therefore – given a strategy of accelerating investments, technologies, factories, electric batteries and recharging infrastructures – “we have to deal with Europe”. Italy is “behind” for Urso, especially in the columns: we have 36,000 charging points, against 90,000 in the Netherlands. The path followed by Chancellor Tajani is the same: the objectives cannot remain only on paper, but must be “achievable”. That of the EU is therefore considered a “serious mistake”, also because – warns the head of Italian diplomacy – “we must defend our automotive industry” which in this way could “lose 70,000 jobs” from a total of the supply chain which employs 250,000 people.
On the operational side, for Confrasporto the prohibition of gasoline and diesel cars until 2035 is “madness: a measure that penalizes the European economy”. It is useless to make “recriminations” of the Democratic Party which – with the former deputy minister, now responsible for the economy of the Democratic Party, Antonio Misiani – asks for a plan: industrial policies for companies and workers and a million public charges for stations. But the Italian automotive industry essentially lacks time to prepare for 2035 and respond to the European request: according to Urso, it is impossible to succeed in “converting our industrial system” both because “we started late” and “because different mistakes in the past”. Of course, the market also enters into controversy. So much so that Stellantis has already asked for new incentives to sustain demand for electric cars. What leads Urso, however, to look at the social implications of the effects of these incentives, recalling that those dedicated “to electric cars remained largely unused last year: they cost a lot for Italian wage earners and today are essentially the reserve of rich in Italy. We cannot make a strategy for the rich, but we must make a strategy for everyone.” A green revolution that upsets Italy.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
