Beyond the damage, even the mockery. The France of Emmanuel Macron not only decided to strike Italy hard on theFincantieri-Stx deal. But he also did something else: now it is trying to change the very rules that the Italian shipbuilding giant wanted to stick to. It's business as usual, one might say. And in fact it seems like a script we've already seen. But what we risk witnessing at this moment is tragicomic.
It all stems from the agreement on the merger of Alstom con Siemens. An agreement That, according to the intentions of Berlin and Paris, would have created a giant of the railway industry. With 27 thousand German employees and 33 thousand French employees, the idea was (and continues to be) that of creating a giant in the sector capable of competing with Chinese and American companies.

Angela Merkel and Macron have done everything to create this large infrastructure conglomerate. And in fact this is one of the points of Treaty of Aachen: build a Franco-German industrial system that is as integrated as possible, in which companies from the two states strengthen relationships as much as possible to create a common agenda. France and Berlin are therefore committed not only from a political and strategic point of view, but also from an economic and infrastructural point of view.
Nothing problematic so far. Each country has the sacrosanct right to choose its own partners and create its own alliances. E the Franco-German axis This is certainly nothing new in recent months, seeing as Berlin and Paris, for decades, they carve up Europe and do business among themselves. The problem, however, is whether this alliance is not only to the detriment of Italy in general terms, but it affects our interests in concrete terms by building a system that is clearly aimed at excluding our industry.
Victimism? Not exactly. Especially if you look at what happened on the Fincantieri-Stx front but above all at what happened subsequently with Siemens and Alstom. Because if we rewind the tape a few weeks, we cannot fail to remember that France boycotted (because that's what it's about) the Italian shipbuilding giant fearing an elusive exceeding of the turnover ceilings to activate European Antitrust. Roofs that were not exceeded at all in the event of Fincantieri's acquisition of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique. But that was enough to stop everything and jeopardize an acquisition he would have (this one yes) created an industry giant capable of competing with Asian and American rivals.

A rude, that of Macron, which will be difficult to mend. Also because the clash between the French and Italian governments has bordered on a real diplomatic crisis, complete with a reminder from the ambassador of Paris. But it makes you smile (if not cry) that precisely those rules cited by the French to block Fincantieri, now their cousins ​​across the Alps and their German neighbors no longer like them. Because while with Italy they were used badly, but that was enough to appeal to the EU, now the European Union has stopped the two German giants of Siemens and Alston because the industrial initiative would have violated the competition rules of the common market. And the stop came from the European commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who vetoed this agreement.
But here's the move by Paris and Berlin that leaves us speechless. Or better, which makes it perfectly clear how France and Germany behave at a European level. For Fincantieri and Italy the rules were obviously very strict. But for the Franco-German industry this was not the case at all, On the contrary, it's the rules that are wrong. And so in these hours the signal has arrived from the French and German governments of a common commitment to change the rules of the game.

The two powers of the Old Continent have thus decided to develop a plan for change the rules of competition of the European Union. In a note, the Economy ministers of France and Germany have in fact declared that "competition rules are essential, but the existing rules must be reviewed in order to adequately take into account industrial policy considerations", that can support European companies in competing on the world stage. “The choice is simple when it comes to industrial policy: join forces or allow our industrial base and capacity to gradually disappear.", adds the note. In short, Rules are liked as long as they harm the third wheel: in this case, Italy.