Arezzo, 1 July 2024 – “That day, we didn’t stop”. March 2023: a commando attacks the company of Mark Benedetti, in Ponticino. A paramilitary action: cut trees used as barricades along the access roads, a car thrown against the gate to open a gap, the safe blown up, significant loot. A year later, Benedetti reviews the robberies carried out in other companies and blurts out: “It is no longer possible to continue like this, we will never finish”. Above all, the clear appeal for “the State to defend our companies that create jobs and move the economy not only of the gold district but of the entire province, just think of the related industries”.
Benedetti, did you compare yourself with your colleagues? What is the picture one year after the attack on his company?
“We are helplessly witnessing an escalation of crime because the bandits have understood that Arezzo is a rich territory but at the same time undefended in terms of public security because the Ministries of the Interior and Defense think on a statistical level, so a burglary in an apartment is as the theft at Salp and therefore the numbers will always be low, but here there is a fundamental economic system to be defended. The situation is not even taken into consideration at the political level: here there is no strong action that starts from the territory and arrive in Rome. We do not have representatives who decisively and effectively carry forward the demands of our production system at a national level”.
What is needed?
“I urge the prefect to ask for specialists who are present in Rome. We need a task force, competent people capable of managing a phenomenon that is spreading. It was done after the attack on Salp, between 2011 and 2012: a man was sent to Arezzo expert from the Army together with special units who managed to stem the situation today. We need specialists, but also the army: everything that can stop this spiral of crime which risks compromising the stability of the linked economic system. to the gold district. We are defending ourselves with private security, but it is unthinkable that it will be enough.”
What does it mean for an entrepreneur to suffer an assault?
“The biggest damage is psychological. You suffer a violation in the sector in which you have worked, you have managed to create a company, jobs. A psychological damage that can also inhibit the incentive to move forward for those who do business and choose to take risks in person. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Because underneath, there is a sense of confusion, the lack of protection from those who, instead, are responsible for defending the entrepreneurial system that has a social function: it creates jobs that generate well-being with effects on the entire economy. Unfortunately, this is a fundamental aspect that no one considers: the business must be supported and defended as a social good”.
He’s afraid? Have you ever thought about giving up?
“Never. Thinking of giving up would mean giving in to the bandits. And then I feel the responsibility of 92 employees, that is, as many families, and as long as I can I will never take a step back, I will stay in my job, like this for 37 years”.
Do you ever think about that day?
“By now we also have a certain amount of experience in managing situations like this. That day we tidied up in the midst of that disaster and worked as always. It’s the only way to move forward and forget as quickly as possible.”
