FIFTH COLUMN

It was true. With the death of the last empress, Marella Caracciolo-Agnelli, the Fiat dynasty ends, tragically decimated by fate. His regal figure summarized the meeting of the imperial dynasty of cars and our own capitalism with the princely-publishing dynasty of the Caracciolos., already owners of la Repubblica-l'Espresso. For the radical world that greeted her, the Lady was the perfect synthesis of the Fiat Empire and the progressive-liberal world. This is how Gianni Riotta remembered her, Nicola Caracciolo, Ezio Mauro and others. Marella Agnelli symbolized, with class and sensitivity, it must be said, the meeting between the employers' saga and the world of the left that came from communism, from workers' struggles against the "bosses". Fiat and Martello, auto, state aid and the progressive press. Then, maybe the lady had other sensitivities, he loved the East, Jung e Hillman, he suffered with admirable self-control, some excesses of her husband, King John. But she is celebrated in her role as a link between the world of the rich and the left, between the small snobbish world and the left in the press.
Con Marchionne the last remnant of Fiat's half-Italian character was already finished. Italy is missing from the new Fiat. The Ferrari brand remains, of the red horse, but no longer the Company-Regime. Fiat is missing as a headquarters, lacking in leadership, is missing as a reference horizon, the I of Italy is missing in the new name, FCA, also to avoid obscene acronyms, at least from us. As is known, the former Fiat is now an Italian-American company with legal tax domicile in the Netherlands and headquarters in London, led by an Englishman and chaired by John Elkann which we would have difficulty defining Italian, by name, origin and vision. Fiat remains as a sub-brand, small gadget for vintage and nostalgic buyers; that ancient brand that smacks of an economic miracle, fifties, Italian families, black and white film.
One after another, Italian companies are going abroad. The paradigm remains Fiat which left Italy five years ago. I remember what our media said when Fiat became related to Crysler. Gran Torino, capital of the world; what a triumph, Fiat got the Chrysler, Obama hired as black butler by Marchionne, the United States are anxiously waiting for the Turin company to bring modernity to their country and resolve the global economic crisis. It is the day of Italian pride, the headlines of the major Italian newspapers were disturbed and moved, all or almost all Fiat subsidiaries, one way or another. The USA will go in 500, the editorials and TV stations prophesied euphorically, Italy recolonizes America, as in the times of Columbus and Vespucci. Historic moment, the news broadcasts solemnly repeated, the Italians at Fiat bring the eco-friendly car to America. But Fiat wasn't in a lot of trouble, the state didn't help her, including the Berlusconi government? But car sales had not halved? And what happened to the judgments on the quality of Fiat cars? Then, as is known, it went differently. Today Fiat is barely the small town of FCA global.
But let's look at the right side and the back side. One hundred and twenty years after his birth in 1899, the law says that Fiat is a notable part of the history of Italy in the twentieth century and its Royal Family was the other Turin dynasty that dominated Italy after the Savoys. Fiat was the symbol, the metaphor and the Italian vehicle of industrialization and modernization, of immigration from south to north and of the collective and private imagination, to the point of colonizing sport, through the hegemony of Juventus, still continuing, going so far as to design the road transport structure of our country. Fiat has never been just a large private company but has always acted in the shadow of public protection: even during the times of fascism he enjoyed the support of the regime and of the Duce himself; then during the war the bilateral affairs with Nazis and partisans, for example, to boycott the socialization of companies promoted by the RSI which neither the communists nor the "bosses" liked. Then, government help at the time of layoffs, from benefits in every field to large shock absorbers of its losses. The proverbial saying is that Fiat socialized losses and privatized profits.
MV, The Truth 26 February 2019
source – http://www.marcelloveneziani.com/articoli/cera-una-volta-la-fiat/