Orsini: 'Attract investment and support production, otherwise jobs at risk'

"Europe in 2025 lost 1 million workers to Chinese products. So what is the medicine to do this? One is to make our companies more competitive, and to make them competitive, of course, we still have to keep the object of being more energy efficient, not polluting less. But on the other hand, if we are not able to be competitive with these countries that today do not have respect for the environment anyway, because they are all gas on fossil fuels, no social respect as we have, I believe that if we are playing on unequal arms it has become a problem. I am thinking of Ets and CO2 emissions, this is equal'. This is what the president of Confindustria Emanuele Orsini remarked while speaking at the closing event of the Trento Festival of Economics organised by the 'Il Sole 24 Ore' Group and Trentino Marketing. With regard to the Electrolux affair and the 'white' industry, Orsini argued: "Electrolux is in great difficulty and we must try to address the issue of white, because it is an important issue and because either we create the conditions or there will be social problems. The Chinese have become the first, on televisions, on whiteness they have become the first, on cars they have become the first. But have we understood that Europe today is only a spectator to two continents like the United States, China, who play their game and we play the game with the whistle and the rules?".

Confindustria's relationship with the trade unions is positive, 'even if we do not always have the same vision'. This was the assessment made by the president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, in his speech at the closing event of the Festival dell'Economia, interviewed by the editor-in-chief of Sole 24 Ore Fabio Tamburini.

"We as Confindustria today, between signed contracts and unexpired contracts, are at 94 per cent. Especially since the government has recognised the contracts that come from us as the right wage contracts. So this I believe is a very good result'.

'I believe that Europe today must do a much more important exercise, which is to unite in order to be able to make real economic policies, in support of industry and enterprise'. Thus the president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, in his speech at the Festival dell'Economia, interviewed by the editor-in-chief of Sole 24 Ore, Fabio Tamburini. Because when we talk about enterprise or industry we only stop at the word enterprise, industry, but for us enterprise and industry, work and workers are the same thing. Because protecting companies, protecting workers means maintaining the social fabric, obviously, of our territories, of our Europe, which is in danger of failing if we no longer have the resilience, obviously, of our companies. So for us, it is crucial that this happens and European policies at the moment are very deficient on the issue of industry,' Orsini lamented.

"This country needs a vanguard of pro-Europeans'. This was stated by Carlo Calenda speaking at the Trento Festival of Economics. "What we are interested in is the construction of a European army that will make us independent," the Action leader explained, also pointing to the need for "a European industrial plan that rejects the Chinese, who are eating us all up with subsidised and bankrupt companies." Calenda then called for 'a governance that does not allow anyone to block deliberations'.

"The sacking of Urso would be the first measure if I went into government. Joking aside, we would need an energy plan starting with hydroelectricity: I would put everything out to tender. Then I would reactivate the two power plants in Civitavecchia and Brindisi to revive manufacturing. Finally I would put in place the minimum wage. The slaves are those who work in cooperatives. Just think that at the Senate those who do the cleaning are paid 7 euro per hour and this is a scandal in the place where a lot of money is wasted'. This was said by the Secretary of Action, Carlo Calenda, speaking at the last day of the Trento Festival of Economics organised by the 24 Ore Group and Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Province in collaboration with the Municipality and the University.

The goal of girls is to have a job that leads to self-fulfilment, with the achievement of economic independence clearly prevailing among girls, compared to boys. These are just two of the elements that emerge from the extensive research 'Italian girls and the new idea of freedom' carried out by the Webboh Lab observatory in collaboration with Feduf and presented at the Trento Festival of Economics organised by Sole 24 Ore and Trentino Marketing. "When we talk about female freedom, we often think of great cultural or ideological issues," said Furio Camillo, Professor of Economic Statistics at the University of Bologna, presenting the results of the research carried out among 2,835 women between the ages of 13 and 30. "In the answers of the girls we interviewed, however, freedom takes on very concrete forms: having one's own money, being able to choose, not being economically dependent, having time for oneself, working without annulling oneself. The research "tells what idea of adult life they consider sustainable today and the central issue that emerges from the data is not only work," she added. 52.7 per cent of the sample aims at a job 'that they enjoy and that fulfils them', while 20.8 per cent indicate that their priority is to 'become economically independent as soon as possible', compared to 8.4 per cent of the young people.

A reopening of the Strait of Hormuz requires 'time to return to 100 per cent normalisation of flows. We estimate one month for oil flows and 3-6 months for refined products, chemicals and aluminium'.

This was stated to Ansa by Gregorio De Felice, chief economist & head of research at Intesa Sanpaolo on the sidelines of the Trento Festival of Economics.

The best weapon for the future of the Middle East is scientific democracy. This is the conviction of Anna Maria Bernini, who in the Council of Ministers on Friday evening shared one of her 'pet projects': the construction of an Italian university in Gaza and Lebanon. As she herself recounted while speaking at the Economics Festival in Trento. "We can't wait," added the minister, who also outlined the road map of the intervention. "From the end of August, the head of the Civil Protection and I will begin to go to Palestine and verify which places we could build, obviously with the local authorities. Apart from the current geopolitical situation, which is very complicated, as far as we are concerned, structures such as those in flooded or war zones can be built, which are permanent, definitive, but which can be built quickly'.and the same applies to Lebanon.

Still on the international front, Bernini recalled Italia's recent participation in the Sesame research project: 'It is a synchrotron,' he explained, 'that we have lent to Jordan, together with the scientific director of this great infrastructure, the largest in the Middle East, which does advanced materials chemistry and can also do biopharma, high medicine, biology and even innovative archaeology. We have pieces of Italia, researchers, technologies and Italian companies that do great research in the world and Sesame is one of these examples'. With the particularity of hosting European, Italian, Egyptian, Iranian, Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian scholars. "This shows us," he concluded, "that scientific democracy works and is the greatest detonator of peace we have at the moment.

"We are living in an age of predators. In politics, economics, in the digital world. It is like a jungle, but we are not animals. We are human beings who have to build respect, have to help each other and create a different world." Tawakkol Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. A journalist and democracy activist, she led the student uprising in Yemen in what was dubbed the 'Jasmine Revolution' that forced President Ali Abulah Saleh, since 1990 at the helm of a corrupt regime dominated by economic crisis and political repression, from power. Since then, the situation has descended into an endless civil war. With on one side the Shiite Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, who have conquered the capital area. And on the other an international coalition of nine mostly Sunni states, led by Saudi Arabia. A forgotten war in the fiery Middle East, with over 150,000 casualties, including 20,000 civilian victims.

The Nobel Peace Laureate spoke on a panel entitled 'The Age of Predators', with Mario Capanna, Pietro Modiano, Father Fortunato and Marco Magnani.

"We act like servants in front of Donald Trump and don't know how to behave in front of the Chinese. Europe should have a united capacity to act. It would take European reformism'.

At the Trento Festival of Economics, former Prime Minister and former President of the EU Commission Romano Prodi, interviewed by the editor-in-chief of Sole 24 ore Fabio Tamburini, confirms his pessimistic outlook on the global scenario and Europe's weakness. A pessimism well portrayed by the quote from Thucydides that he chooses, almost as if the world had returned to that of over two thousand years ago: "On the part of Israel and the US there is an extraordinary strategic capacity but a political incapacity that I have never understood. The real quote from Thucydides to quote is 'the world is made this way, the powerful do what they want and the weak suffer what they can'. Trump has put it into practice."

"The bonus policy is a demonstration of the inability of politics to conceive and implement medium-term strategies and visions. Let's face it, it is populism. To be close to everyone without displeasing anyone and instead of transparent and well-directed measures confuses the cards by giving everyone, in turn, the impression that they are benefiting from politics. Bonuses are the essence of Italy's malaise: for 25 years they have condemned us not to grow. Bonuses are the expression of petty politics that is incapable of prioritising'.

This was said by Elsa Fornero speaking at a panel at the Trento Festival of Economics.

The development of digital, especially in the last decade, has created an enormous concentration of power in a few companies located between the West Coast of the United States and China.

The latest wave of technology, that of artificial intelligence, has not changed the situation. If anything, it has reinforced it. Fostering the growth of the big players in Ai are the investments of Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia. Furthermore, OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI have a common matrix: they all originate from OpenAI. A small group of people who will soon make what will probably be the biggest IPOs in history.

Italia lags far behind international benchmarks on financial literacy.
During the Festival of Economics in Trento, in a panel hosted at the cloud of Confcooperative, Paola Bongini, from Milan-Bicocca University, highlighted the findings of the OECD.

While the average for the advanced countries stands at 63 points, Italia stops at 53, with a gap that penalises women in particular (at 51 points) and young people under 30 (who record the lowest figure at 46).

Florence is the city with the best quality of life for children, Bolzano excels in the youth segment and Trieste wins for the elderly. These are the data provided as a preview this morning during the last day of the Trento Festival of Economics by Il Sole 24 Ore, which has compiled the new edition of the 'Quality of Life' by age group.

Lasting five days for the first time, from 20 to 24 May, the 21st edition of the Trento Festival of Economics "From the market to new powers. The hopes of young people" is running, today is the last day, with over 300 appointments, more than 700 speakers, including 5 Nobel Prize winners, 122 speakers from the academic world, 35 national and international economists, 95 representatives of national and European institutions, 129 managers and entrepreneurs.

Five days of dialogues and debates featuring some of Italy's leading government and political figures (18 ministers and three opposition leaders), together with representatives of institutions and civil and security authorities, engaged in high-profile panels on reforms, the labour market, energy transition, healthcare, education, infrastructure, innovation and the future of the younger generations.

Giornata conclusiva della ventunesima edizione del Festival dell’Economia di Trento, la rassegna organizzata dal Gruppo 24 Ore e Trentino Marketing per conto della Provincia autonoma.

A chiudere i lavori sarà il presidente di Confindustria Emanuele Orsini. In mattinata è prevista la manifestazione ’Giovani, anziani, bambini’, l’indagine della Qualità della vita del Sole 24 Ore. Previsto poi l’arrivo del segretario di Azione, Carlo Calenda, che parteciperà all’iniziativa ’I giovani, ultima chiamata per l’Europa”.