Gentiloni: “Bergamo an example for Italy. The crisis is over This territory is a model of strength and cohesion”

More clues make a proof: Bergamo is, seen from the outside, an area that has been able to respond better to the crisis, that has been able to restart better than others and that, today, is a model to which the rest of Italy needs to strive in order to latch onto a recovery that is still uneven at the different latitudes of the country. “The security and teamwork that the Bergamo area can count on is an example for the whole of Italy.” This is how Paolo Gentiloni, starring at the Kilometro Rosso for the Città Impresa Festival, closed a speech that sent messages in different directions, from political forces to the business world. Before Gentiloni, Brembo patron Alberto Bombassei in 2013 had hosted at the scientific-technological park overlooking the A4 the debut as political leaders of Mario Monti and Matteo Renzi on the first day of the referendum campaign, May 2016. Today, the political scenario has completely changed, and if the protagonists of the recent past are in crisis of consensus, Gentiloni claims the economic results achieved precisely in the last five years: “The biggest crisis since the postwar period is over, and the credit goes to labor, businesses, and our territories,” the premier says. “This year we won the race to jump up in growth. We had started from forecasts of 0.8 percent, we got to more than double that.” But, precisely, this is not a homogeneous recovery, neither geographically nor anagraphically, because employment has grown mainly among workers over 45 years old. That’s why Bergamo’s data are being pointed to as a model to follow: “Here, exports between 2009 and 2016 grew by 45 percent, while in the rest of Europe they grew by 21 percent,” Gentiloni says. And, indeed, Kilometro Rosso is a symbol of this strength, of the ability to innovate that allows relatively small realities to compete in the world and establish themselves as leaders. Before attending the conference, the premier was taken on a tour of Brembo’s laboratories, even experiencing brakes with a road test. “We gave him a red caliper,” says Bombassei, barely disappointed by the speed with which the Prime Minister had to pass through offices and workshops.

Gentiloni, after acknowledging the value that companies like Brembo hold for Italy in the world, however, also highlights a risk related to the development of Industry 4.0: “We have to be careful not to accentuate a divide between a new digital elite, capable of living in the world and not tied to any particular land, and a pool of underpaid, frustrated workers with fewer skills. We need to invest in human capital and defend the business culture that is breathed in territories like this,” the premier says. “We need to bet on a future that, with innovation, knows how to generate widespread development, with the characteristics of that industrial miracle we have witnessed in Italy in past decades.

But Bergamo is also the province where the referendum on Lombard autonomy had the highest turnout. Bombassei himself recalls this, emphasizing the balance with which politics at the regional level is handling the path in the aftermath of the vote. Gentiloni acknowledges that the demand for autonomy is “sacrosanct.” He does not elaborate on the contents of a possible state-region negotiation (also because it will most likely be up to his successor to manage it) but draws a line: “The request for autonomy must enhance the efficiency of the territories, it must not be a request for separation. Cohesion must be protected precisely in the link with the territory.”