Ilva Steelworks (again)

Italy doesn't need another long-running saga of corruption.  And my reporting on one doesn't say much of anything new.  But I came in early on this one.  And I've had a kind of morbid fascination to follow the story as it develops.  (See four earlier posts.)

This has to do with the Ilva steelworks, the largest steel producer in Europe.  The facility is located right next to the southern Italian city of Taranto in Puglia.  Last year, faced with hard-to-deny evidence that the facility was poisoning the air and the residents of Taranto, and that governmental authorities were unable or unwilling to stop it, judicial authorities stepped in.  They seized the entire facility and removed Emilio Riva and his two sons Nicola and Fabio.  The sons are under house arrest and the father has decided to live in England for a while.  

Taranto with the Ilva works in the background.

The authorities also began several criminal investigations.  The most interesting character to emerge so far appears to be a Girolamo Archinà, Ilva's director of "institutional relations."  In this position he developed and maintained relationships with individuals in all levels of government, the press, and the church.  He aim was always to allow the company to keep making steel and to avoid any constraining environmental or health rules.  As he would make his case, it must certainly have made a difference that Ilva is the region's largest employer with about 5,000 employees.  Even so, it appears Archinà may have been ready to use other means of persuasion.  He is suspected of paying 10,000 euros to a consultant to the prosecutor's office to have him tone down findings in a study of the sources of pollution in Taranto.

Ilva and Taranto are back in the news because new information from one of the investigations involves several political figures, the best-known of whom is Nichi Vendola, the governor of Puglia, an on-again, off-again national political figure, and subject of a mostly-complimentary Washington Post profile a couple of years ago.

Nichi Vendola, President of Puglia.

Apparently, telephone recordings indicate that Vendola tried to persuade the regional environmental protection agency (Agenzia regionale per la protezione ambientale) to go easy on Ilva so that it could stay open.  Vendola has denied any wrong-doing and says he hopes to meet with investigators as soon as possible.  

Meanwhile, thanks to two governmental decrees, the plant is still open, operating under a receiver.  But there are no signs the air in Taranto is any cleaner.