April 29, 2008
Berlusconi is back and so is Silviospeak
To the 23 official languages of the European Union can be added a 24th – Silviospeak.
Yes, Berlusconi is back and once again turning heads and headlines across Europe.
The incoming Italian premier has yet to form a government but has already irked Brussels on two issues: his defence of lossmaking airline Alitalia and the nomination of a Italy’s European commissioner.
The billionaire businessman helped wreck talks to sell Alitalia to Air France/KLM by holding out the prospect of an Italian takeover. Now, if local businessmen do not stump up the cash, he could just nationalise it, he said on Tuesday.
He invented a new word – “zignare” - to describe the hectoring of the Commission, which is anxious to ensure that the airline does not receive any more government subsidies, disadvantaging its competitors.
“If they continue hectoring, we could take a decision in which Alitalia could be bought by the state - by the state railway,” Berlusconi told a news conference. “It’s a threat, not a decision.” Some suspect it may also be a joke since the railway lacks the resources to take on the airline.
Jacques Barrot, the EU transport commissioner, has expressed doubts over whether an emergency 300m government loan complied with state aid rules. The Commission on Tuesday said that nationalisation would not pose a problem as long as the state did not pay above market rates for the 50.1 per cent of Alitalia it did not own. Given the lack of private buyers a market rate could be difficult to gauge.
Italy gave Jose Manuel Barroso, Commission president, a further headache on Tuesday when Franco Frattini, its commissioner, asked for his leave of absence to be extended until May 15. He took time off to campaign with Berlusconi and is expected to become Rome’s foreign minister.
Barroso last week said that if he resigned Italy would lose the sensitive justice and home affairs post, which temporary fill-in Barrot would retain. The new Italian would take Barrot’s transport portfolio. Rocco Buttiglione, Berlusconi’s last pick, (cd xref to beeb or our story) had to withdraw in 2004 after offending the European parliament with remarks about homosexuality and the role of women.
Patience with Italy is strained in Brussels. After his time spent with Berlusconi, it might be wise for Frattini not to return.
Europe needs maturity, Alitalia must remain healthy, viable and in local hands with the least lay-offs possible,cool head must come to the table and link the airline,its pilots and workers with smart changes to another airline, what about Aeroflot? what happened to the old offer?
or what about a flexible airline ” on-call anytime ” to all the other airlines anywhere in Europe ?
in any case, airlines in Europe as well as the Americas need to solve the key problem: we need a new synthetic jet fuel, right now ! from now on is just up,up and up for oil, so we need solutions,not fights, Berlusconi get smart and make deals !
also Europe needs its own engine lines, turboprop and turbo-fan and jet-ram ,etc., the new Europrop is vital ( Snecma and RR,right? ) and must be a door to a full line of choices in engines, because the future is vertical take-off and vertical landing, who will get there first? the europeans, the americans or the chinese? or the indians? who ? it’s for the takers….
Posted by: blogger | April 29th, 2008 at 9:50 pm | Report this commentit’s not a bad idea to sell alitalia to state railways: trains in italy already go faster than travelling with alitalia (always late in take off always late in arrival)
Posted by: franco | April 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am | Report this commentAnother good idea wuold be to merge state railways to alitalia and immedeately after declare bankruptcy for the new company
Berlusconi must be praying that the EU refuses to allow him to spend state money on Alitalia. That way, he can paint the EU as Italy’s wicked enemy, a blood-curdling accusation that would delight his xenophobic Lega Nord allies in parliament. If however the EU allows his government to provide state support, Alitalia’s death will be postponed for only a few months more, and Mr B will be left to carry the can. Alitalia is beyond saving. It’s a ramshackle, inefficient, money-losing operation that deserves to go bust. Either the EU delivers the coup de grace (unlikely, because the Commissioners don’t do that sort of thing) or the company is condemned to a slow and lingering death by the administration of small and inadequate injections of state aid. One way or another, Alitalia is doomed. It’s far too late to save it now.
Posted by: Penruddock | April 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm | Report this commentDon’ t under estimate Berlusconi. He will find a solution and solve the problem. It’ s a matter of right moment, after all this pessimism, it will be seen as triumph.
Posted by: Michael Levi | April 30th, 2008 at 2:39 pm | Report this commentblogger’s ideas are great - for the future, and for an airline in good shape. Sadly, Alitalia’s planes are antiquated gas-guzzlers; their over-manning and worker restrictive practices are a dead weight; and the airline has for too long been too much under political influence.
Please don’t ruin the state railways - what have they done to deserve to have such a basket-case as Alitalia foisted onto them?
Berlusconi is a mix of Mr Teflon and Houdini (eg look at his court record!). It will be interesting to see how he gets out of this one. I’m not betting against him!
Posted by: derek tunnicliffe | April 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm | Report this commentAlitalia was loosing due to mis management and due to the fact it has been used, for too long time, to build up jobs. Unfortunately Italian State owned companies had the same problems. ENI has been able to get out of this mis management and recover. It could be possible also for Alitalia. There is a very high potential in Italy, considering the air traffic due to tourism and business. It’ s only question to re organise the company better, cut costs and cut redundant jobs.
Posted by: Michael Levi | April 30th, 2008 at 4:29 pm | Report this commentWhy doesn’t “Il saltimbanco” buy Alitalia himself ? He’s got the money but not the balls.
Posted by: john somer | April 30th, 2008 at 9:06 pm | Report this commentTo blogger,
Your idea of VTOL would increase the fuel consumption (and CO2 emissions) by a factor of three, Not exactly environmentally correct…
If the memory of my old student days at Bologna University does not fail me, “zignare” is no Silviospeak at all: it means to whimper (not really to hector) in the Bolognese dialect. May be the Italian Northern League would be pleased to see Bolognese added as the 24th official language of the EU, as you thoughtfully suggest.
Posted by: Mario Ferretti | April 30th, 2008 at 10:13 pm | Report this commentItaly’s politics is in turmoil. The 2008 elections are the most significant turning point since WWII. It marks the end of the thirty years long catho-communist era. Italy is definetly split into thre parts: a North mostly governed by the Northern League that is a pragmatic Europe-looking party; a Center mostly dominated by the National Alliance, a right wing MaCarthist type party; and the South occupied by autonomist parties and various mafia rings. How long will Berlusconi’s leadership last? Predictably not too long. It may pave the way for a new technical government responding to the three-Italy parts common demands: fiscal devolution and restrictions on civil rights (triggered by the growing anti-immigrant feeling). Europe is something that is not the priority of any of three Italy’s parts.
Posted by: paolo | April 30th, 2008 at 10:58 pm | Report this comment“The billionaire businessman helped wreck talks to sell Alitalia to Air France/KLM by holding out the prospect of an Italian takeover”. Well, yes. And, some time ago, France opposed to the take-over of a French producer of mineral water by FIAT on the basis of ‘national interest’ considerations. Yes, mineral water…
Posted by: Giovanni Ferraris | April 30th, 2008 at 11:45 pm | Report this commentAs for “the decision in which Alitalia could be bought by the state - by the state railway”, which might “be a joke since the railway lacks the resources to take on the airline”, well, yes once again. But there’s hope. We could always learn how to find those resources by studying the recent nationalisation of Northern Rock by your Government. Thank you.
And I would like to apologise on behalf of all those sub-human, illiterate fellow Italians who, like me, voted for Silvio. Or maybe not - isn’t democracy that thing that you teach us has people voting to elect their representatives? We voted for Silvio. Maybe we are a bunch of idiots, like your newspaper implicitly assumes; maybe it is the other way around. In any case, I’m afraid you will have to accept it - and sorry for the ‘Britannia agreements’, I’m afraid Goldaman Sachs and its acolytes have lost much of their saying on Italian matters for the next 5 years. Bye, Andrew.
Silvio Berlusconi has a lot of potential as Italian politician and may change the life in Italy to the best. I remember my warm meetings with Silvio and believe in his ability to execute new governmental reform strategies and policies.
Posted by: Viktor O. Ledenyov | May 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am | Report this commentI frankly don’t understad why the British press is always so much against Berlusconi. I think we have been very lucky that he won the elections and facts will confirm it before long. If we then think that the choice was Veltroni, comunist till day before yesterday…..
Posted by: Roberto Castellano | May 1st, 2008 at 10:15 am | Report this commentThanks very much for all the interest in this post. Good to see Silvio’s voters spending May day with the FT, unlike all those leftists who are presumably out marching or having a barbecue. I am especially grateful for Mario Ferretti’s translation. It seems Reuters, which used the word “whinge”, was more accurate than La Repubblica, which said “bother”. And nice to know bolognese has brought us more phrases than spaghetti…whoops my Italian prejudices running away with me again. I think good luck to Berlusconi. It’s just he didn’t seem to deliver what he promised last time and surely it shouldn’t be his policy to have the taxpayer keep paying for Alitalia staff to fly between Rome and Milan to begin work.
Posted by: Andrew Bounds | May 1st, 2008 at 10:29 am | Report this commentYes, Andrew, I totally agree with you on the usual relative accuracy of Reuters and La Repubblica, and also on Silvio (unless of course his Alitalia follies are but a shrewd gimmick to shift on the UE the blame for the unavoidable). Just one thing. As far as I know, “spaghetti bolognese” exist only in the UK, certainly not in the ancient, learned and well-fed city of Bologna. Spaghetti are a southern food, frowned upon by any self-respecting Bolognese. The British contamination must be due to the meat sauce you put on them, which is vaguely similar to ragù, i.e. the typical Bolognese seasoning for noodles. So, you see, Italy has still some important secrets to unveil for you.
Posted by: Mario Ferretti | May 1st, 2008 at 4:53 pm | Report this commentDear Somer, have you ever heard about core business? I don’ t think Fininvest or Medisaet or AC Milan could fit with Alitalia. However don’ t put limits to Berlusconi, he has showed his capacities in the past. He has been able to organise a political party in few months and become a political leader, a key player. And his Party became strong with good ideas.
In the left there is no one with the same value. They need to re organise, they took for too many years many votes that were granted from the “left trend” . I had a wonderful grand mother that was a “Partigiana” during the war, and then voted left till her last year of life without looking even the ideas and program of the party. This situation has viced the Italian Left, and it’ s time they work hard to re build their ideas and credibility.
Posted by: Michael Levi | May 1st, 2008 at 5:34 pm | Report this commentAs an italian living abroad, saddened by my people voting en masse for a criminal, one advice to all: forget Italy, it is doomed. Not because Mr. Berlusconi election, but because of its people who voted him. Ethics, wiseness, long-term vision, all that is gone from italian culture.
Posted by: World citizen | May 1st, 2008 at 7:35 pm | Report this commentNow, with a bit of luck, italian politics and economics will simply collapse. Moody and other rating agencies will downgrade italian debt to junk level, foreign investors will leave the scene, and the EU will decide to loose its patience with Italy, together with a few other important international institutions, kicking Italy out of the inner circle.
When the whole paper building called Italy will be finally burnt to the ground, it will be possible to build something presentable. It will take some time, so do not hold your breath while waiting.
But never forget, when Mr. B does what he normally do - stealing and cheating - that the majority of italians voted him there.
As an italian living in Italy I can say That I believe in Italy, in the istitutions and what PEOPLE OF ITALY decided with the last vote. I also trust in our capacities to cope with the situation of Alitalia as well as our economic growth. Fortunatly men like you dear “world citizen” don’t live in Italy, we don’t need men with small brain who say to be italian only by words and then after offending our nation sign with “world citizen” because of the fear to show the name!this is not “italian” We need real italian and real men, so please stay where you live and don’t tell you are italian, you’re not!
Posted by: Dario Crive | May 2nd, 2008 at 12:38 am | Report this commentTrying to flog off Alitalia to the national railway is just passing this hot potato from the frying pan to the fire. Picture this in lay mans terms: over 1.3billion in dept and losing over a million more a day! They’ve been given another 300milion handout (flying caution to the wind with regard to E.U. regulations) which must be paid back within a year (plus interest). Due to the fact no restructuring plan at this stage has a hope in hell of righting this wrong, how does Berlusconi figure Alitalia will be able to pay back (300m/12) 25million a month while at the it’s losing over 30million a month. Either he’s a creative genius or just really bad at maths!
Posted by: Neal | May 2nd, 2008 at 12:53 am | Report this commentSecondly if he were to hang this albatross around the neck of the national railway, pretty soon he’ll have 2 major semi-state companies bankrupt instead of one.
I say fair play to O’Leary and Walsh (CEO’s Ryanair and B.A) up the Irish! At least they’ve the sense to stand up to a ‘tongue n cheek’ slippery politician. Berlusconi was obviously just buying himself more time until he got back into the Italian government driving seat while Italian tax payers foot the bill!
When eventually the EU Commission demands Alitalia pay back the 300 million, the company will cease to exist, then what? Sanctions? A fine ?….poor Italian taxpayers! Well they can only blame themselves for voting for him!
Up the Irish!!! Neal
Yes, Italian voters have clearly shown their preference for Silvio Berlusconi. For sure the voters are not concerned about Berlusconi’s great conflict of interest: his control of the media. In fact in the recent elections the matter of security was manipulated by the Berlusconi controlled TV.The TV audience was bombarded with the stories of rape and violence. And this paid off handsomely.Why is it that Italian voters are not disturbed by this enormous conflict and therefore threat to liberal democracy? It should also not be forgotten that most of the press is controlled by industrialists, banks and business lobbies.
Secondly, Berlusconi calls himself a liberal. Why does he want to give tax payers’ money to keep Alitalia “alive” for the next few months? Or sell it to the state railways which is also almost bankrupt? It should also be remembered that during his previous government he did not privatise Alitalia or carry out any major liberal reforms. Why do these facts not worry Italian voters?
Because he is the richest man in Italy he thinks that he can ride a rough shod over the EU.
It seems to me that Italian voters really admire his wealth and hope that some of his riches will come their way!
Jagdish
Posted by: Jagdish Kothari | May 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm | Report this commentSr. Berlusconi likes to make the Italians feel that he is more powerful than Brussels. But in the end it is all a game for him, if he loses he will leave behind a disastrous situation, return to Arcore and doesn’t care. Alitalia once had the best trained, highly responsible personnel of Europe and the least accidents. It is not a mess as may say, and certainly not beyond saving. It just takes political courage to do so and less self interest that Mr. B. has.
Posted by: mina | May 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 am | Report this commentSr. Berlusconi likes to make the Italians feel that he is more powerful than Brussels. But in the end it is all a game for him, if he loses he will leave behind a disastrous situation, return to Arcore and doesn’t care. Alitalia once had the best trained, highly responsible personnel of Europe and the least accidents. It is not a mess as may say, and certainly not beyond saving. It just takes political courage to do so and less self interest than Mr. B. has.
Posted by: mina | May 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 am | Report this commentBerlusconi do it better
Posted by: dragoberto | May 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am | Report this commentHey Andrew, what about Borisspeak?
Posted by: dragoberto | May 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm | Report this commentI understand he’s quite a good football player too, especially with Zidane-like headers…
Dragoberto, tomorrow the new Mayor of London will play for A.C. Milan against Inter.
He said that he can’t wait to meet his “friend” Materazzi ;-))
Posted by: Crociato | May 3rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm | Report this commentI have read all the posts.
Posted by: ramirez | May 4th, 2008 at 11:13 am | Report this commentThis is a F.T. Blog ??? sure ??
I can hear the same words
in every ‘bar’ here in Italy.
Congratulations for the high value
of above mentioned post.
My thanks to julie willnot. Although the word I think I heard from my friends in Bologna was actually “zignare”, used to mean “whimper”, your objection on the desinence is of course right. Yet “Bulgneis” speakers have a habit to produce borrowings of their dialect into Italian, sometimes even repeateng the same concept twice, once in the original and once in its italianised form. So my hypothesis is that there must be a “bulgneis” verb “zignèr” which was italianised by my friends into “zignare” through linguistic borrowing (the alternative hypothesis of “zighèr” as the source seems unconvincing also for semantic reasons, because it just means “to cry”). It stands to reason that a similar root – if it exists in Bolognese – must also be found in Lombard dialects, from which it likely found its way into Mr Berlusconi’s prose.
Posted by: Mario Ferretti | May 4th, 2008 at 12:13 pm | Report this comment