Ilva, chronicle of the failure of an industry without the right to use

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Taranto . The closure of Ilva , the largest steelworks in Europe, began on July 26, 2012, when the investigating judge of Taranto Patrizia Todisco ordered the seizure without the right to use the entire Taranto plant. The charge was environmental disaster. The same investigating judge, on November 26, ordered the seizure of the finished and semi-finished product stacked on the dock: 1.8 million tons of steel worth 1 billion euros. The judicial custodian was Barbara Valenzano, a pupil of Michele Emiliano (a candidate unsuccessfully several times) . The Monti government passed the first “save Ilva” decree: in fact, it allowed the right to use, even under seizure, for 36 months, the time needed for environmental compliance. The Taranto prosecutor's office challenged the government decree in the Constitutional Court. On April 9, the Constitutional Court issued a historic ruling, destined to set a precedent (even during a pandemic): the right to health is not more important than the right to work, all must be balanced. In this case, the balance between rights is found in compliance with the environmental plan. On May 24, investigating judge Todisco ordered the seizure of 8 billion euros from the Riva family's assets: in his opinion, the Monti law does not require Ilva to provide adequate financial guarantees for environmental investments. All the managers resign.

The Letta government arrives and decides to appoint a commissioner to Ilva, expropriating the Rivas without compensation. And defining Ilva as a “site of strategic national interest”, so as to be able to grant the right of use by decree, bypassing the prosecutor’s office. The Renzi government will do more, when it introduces the criminal shield: managers cannot be investigated for environmental crimes while they are carrying out the works prescribed by the environmental plan. Among the prescriptions is the remaking of Afo5: the largest blast furnace in Europe, which churns out 40 percent of Ilva’s steel, is shut down to be modernized. It will remain closed forever. Despite the shield, in 2015 the prosecutor’s office seizes Blast Furnace 2 without the right of use, following the death of a worker. We are still under commissioner management. The Renzi government ensures production continuity thanks to repeated loans, but without Afo2 we cannot go on. So it passes a decree to grant the right of use. In this case, however, the Court, appealed by the prosecution, will define the decree as unconstitutional.

After ten years, the first-degree verdict of the Taranto trial arrives, with very heavy sentences for managers and politicians: it was an environmental disaster. The plant remains under seizure. The lawyers appeal the sentence. The Constitutional Court establishes that the panel of judges was not impartial . The judges could not decide on Ilva and the trial, after ten years, must start again from the first hearing, but in Potenza. It will never end. In the meantime, Ilva has been sold to the largest steelmaker in the world: ArcelorMittal. But the Conte government removes the criminal shield. We are in 2019 and the Taranto prosecutor's office starts up again and issues another seizure order without the right to use Afo2, for the same facts as in 2015: according to the custodian Barbara Valenzano, the environmental requirements had not been respected. More months will pass, and in the end the Constitutional Court will issue the right to use it. But ArcelorMittal cannot go on like this.

We arrive at Conte II: Minister Gualtieri decides to intervene with the entry of Invitalia. The situation worsens. We are in the Meloni government: Minister Urso accuses ArcelorMittal of having destroyed the company, and seizes it with a second receivership. He reintroduces the penal shield and puts it back on sale . In the meantime he says he has saved it and inaugurates the reopening of Afo1 after the restoration work. After six months a fire breaks out in that blast furnace, with no injuries. The prosecutor's office, despite the penal shield, seizes it for the umpteenth time without the right to use it, investigating the managers for throwing dangerous substances. Another thousand people on redundancy, industrial plan compromised, sale gone, money gone and economic disaster accomplished. By magistrates, commissioners and governments.

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