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Italy mourns Marchionne

Italy mourns Marchionne

Mattarella hails vision, Salvini says wd have done a lot more

Rome, 25 July 2018, 19:41

Redazione ANSA

ANSACheck

- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

-     ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Italy on Wednesday mourned Sergio Marchionne with the late FCA chief remembered as a tough, charismatic and visionary leader who saved Fiat and went on to forge a daring merger with Chrysler, turning the combined firm into the world's seventh-biggest carmaker.
    John Elkann, the president of the Agnelli-Elkann family holding company Exor, announced that the former FCA CEO had died at the age of 66.
    "Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone," said Elkann. "I believe that the best way to honor his memory is to build on the legacy he left us, continuing to develop the human values of responsibility and openness of which he was the most ardent champion. "My family and I will be forever grateful for what he has done. "Our thoughts are with Manuela, and his sons Alessio and Tyler.
    New FCA CEO Mike Manley said Marchionne "was a special man", asking for a minute's silence on his debut with financial analysts in presenting FCA's disappointing second-quarter results, with profits 35% down.
    "It is very sad and difficult time. Heartbreaking news. He was a unique man and we will miss him".
    Manley said "I spent nine years speaking with Sergio every day and my heart is broken....The relationship between us was based on transparency, focusing on targets and, the most important thing of all, on respect".
    President Sergio Mattarella said: "His vision always tried to look beyond the horizon and imagine how innovation and quality might give greater force in the future course. "Marchionne paid witness with his leadership to all this, showing the world the abilities and creativity of the manufacturing realities of our country".
    The head of State said "Marchionne wrote an important page in the history of Italian industry.
    "In his responsibility as leader of Fiat he traversed years of very deep and radical transformations of markets, systems of production, financial strategies, and union relations.
    "He ensured continuity and relaunch as far as building a new aggregation, to give life to a new and bigger reality to sustain competition.
    "Marchionne never gave up fighting for his strategies, facing difficulties and conflicts, in order to overcome misunderstandings". Premier Giuseppe Conte praised his abilities and said "I express my condolences and those of all the government for the passing of Sergio Marchionne.
    "My most heartfelt condolences to the family and all his loved ones". Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said "honour to a man who did a lot and could have still done a lot more. "A thought for the family of Sergio Marchionne and best wishes to those who will have the honour and the duty of taking his place", Salvini said, referring to new CEO Manley, the former Jeep chief. Former centre-left premier Romano Prodi said "the news of the passing of Sergio Marchionne grieves me.
    "His death deprives us of an interlocutor of great technical ability and refined political intelligence. I recall the immediate empathy that his lectures aroused in the students of Brown University and the attention he captured with his direct and involving approach.
    "This was combined in him with rigour, a great spirit of will and an extraordinary capacity for work with which he faced the challenge, not an easy one, of car manufacturing". Former centre-left premier Paolo Gentiloni said "thanks for the work, the hard work, the results. And for Italian pride carried to the world".
    Gentiloni's centre-left predecessor Matteo Renzi said "I feel disgust at those (leftists and radicals) who still today have insulted on social networks a man who was dying. "An affectionate hug for the family of Sergio Marchionne. May the earth be light upon him".
    Former centre-right premier Silvio Berlusconi said he would have liked to see Marchionne lead Italy for his centre-right bloc.
    "With Sergio Marchionne Italy loses not only the most brilliant of its managers but one of the symbolic figures of our country," said the Forza Italia leader.
    "He represented the best Italy: the hard-working and concrete, serious and prepared, gifted with a vision and able to look to the future. "...I said once, without telling him beforehand, that I would have liked to see him lead our country. I still think that," Berlusconi said. The Wall Street Journal said Marchionne was a "star of the auto industry and his death ends an era for Detroit where he was one of the untouchable CEOs".
    Opening its site with news of the FCA ex-chief's death, the WSJ said "he challenged the orthodoxy of the car industry, and he was ahead of his rivals in some of the most important trends of the car industry".
    The business daily quoted Evercore ISI as calling him "one of the most successful and formidable CEOs of the auto industry".
    Flags flew at half mast at FCA's Lingotto HQ in Turin while all FCA plants including Melfi and Pomigliano d'Arco observed a 10-minute silence for Marchionne's passing.
    Juventus, part of the Agnelli group, on Wednesday called Marchionne "a giant".
    Juve President Andrea Agnelli said: "Bon voyage, and may you continue to light up the way".
    Juve will play its next match with black armbands.
    Piero Ferrari, son of late motor racing legend Enzo, said Marchionne had reminded him of his father. "He recalled my father in many ways: also in the moments in which he was toughest he let emerge a great humanity behind that facade," Piero told ANSA.
    "In my personal history with the firm I have lived many painful moments, and today another one has been added with this grave loss.
    "Sergio had since taking the job (as Ferrari president) respect and recognition for Ferrai and its history".
    Italy's biggest and most leftwing union CGIL said, however, that Marchionne maye have saved Fiat but did not save not union dialogue.
    Marchionne, "to whom the esteem of the CGIL always went, has the indubitable merit of saving a dying form. A man of great intelligence and managerial ability, a tough negotiator, excellent organiser, he was not however able, nor did he want to, steer the firm towards dialogue and collaboration with an important part of Italian workers". CGIL added that there were now "many unknowns" about the future of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
    "Today as many unknowns remain on the future of production and employment levels in Italy, FCA needs to adopt an industrial plan and face the still-unresolved issues that remain and re-present themselves not only to the new management but to the owners and public decision-makers," it said. The other two main unions, CISL and UIL, who reconciled themselves to his job cuts, joined in the praise of Marchionne.
    Apple CEO Tim Cook called Marchionne "a visionary in the carmaking industry and a remarkable leader".
   

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