To put it in Italian: I work at Fiat, which isn’t even exact because now it’s called Stellantis.
There is no point in going through the history of Stellantis/Fiat, we leave that to the experts in economics and bolts.
What I would like to talk about today, in the hope that someone will read and maybe intervene with some posts on social media where I will post the link to this article, is the “hanging” history of the Stellantis plant in Contrada Pantano Basso, known to all as the Fiat of Termoli. A plant that in its “small way” has been able to write beautiful pages in the history of Italian automotive production. One example above all: the Fire engine that took the place of the 903 cc engine of the 127, which in turn was derived from the engine of the 850 which instead took inspiration from the engine of the 600. Here in practice are forty years of automotive history in five simple numbers that identify cars that we have all seen and climbed into. The Fiat of Pantano Basso represented the true immersion of the peasant world in the history of automotive metal mechanics.
Following the opening of the Pantano Basso plant, many people from Molise (four thousand at the time of maximum employment) were able to be hired and work at Fiat. It was a noble, albeit burdensome, way to free themselves from working in the fields or even from the uncertainty of working with a VAT number. Memorable was the comment of a gentleman, the classic grumbler that we have in every family, when they broke down on Ingotte with a Fiat 126. Looking at the car, the grumbler said: “… cars built by tailors and butchers…” Because in his town, among others, the tailor and the butcher had gone to work at Fiat.
Fiat also represented the possibility of increasing connections between Termoli and the interior to give the opportunity to stoic metalworkers who, in order not to leave their native town, patiently and forcefully absorb the exhausting work shifts because they are increased by the journey to get to the factory.
This, in simple terms, from those who only hear about Fiat.
These days there is an intense debate between internal combustion and electric engines, it is still not clear which of the two will save the entire world, we will not go into the merits due to a lack of technical knowledge. I just want to say that at the moment, perhaps, even if Stellantis had prepared a new and well-made development plan for the Termoli plant, it seems that we can go back and call into question, hopefully not, the plant itself. In Molise there are three “companies” that have more or less the same employees: the Molise Region, Asrem and Stellantis. At least these I believe are the first three. On the existence and continuation of the first two each of us has his own opinion. As for Asrem we would all hope that it continues to exist so as not to die in the corridors of some poorly managed hospital. As for Stellantis, can the Molise Region do something? In my opinion, in the last few days something has happened that would be the least to call unfortunate. Upon hearing the news of the possibility of reviewing the company strategies with a substantial downsizing of the Pantano Basso plant, the Molise Region Authority and the entire Molise parliamentary patrol – made up of the honorable Cesa and Lancellotta and the Senators Lotito and Della Porta and the recently re-elected European Parliamentarian Patriciello – it seems, and I say SEEM, that no one has moved to at least try to understand how things actually stand for the Pantano Basso plant. The only one to intervene with a parliamentary question was a Tuscan parliamentarian who “planted” a question in Parliament to which, question, they await the answers.
The much vaunted, during the election campaign, institutional supply chain by President Roberti why did not work, or at least could not work, for the Stellantis plant? Why is Stellantis, after having received four hundred million euros, against an investment of two billion, also in euros, thinking of backtracking? And the political class of Molise, as a center-right political class that is tinkering so much to try to understand how the municipality of Campobasso can be administered even if the center-left mayor has won, what is it doing? There are ten thousand people at stake, including employees, families and related industries who remain attached to the metalworker’s salary of the Stellantis plant in Termoli.
Those listed in these few lines are only the fears of a Molise citizen, perhaps anxious, for the economic future of his region. I hope I am wrong on all fronts and I wish the Pantano Basso (or Rivolta del Re) plant to immediately return to the glories of 1985 when the production of the Fire engine began right in Temoli and there was a visit to the plant by President Pertini and the “lawyer” who written with quotation marks is understood to be Gianni Agnelli.
I believe that a greater commitment, or a minimum commitment, on the part of the political class of Molise, both of the Regional Council and of all parliamentarians, including the European one, can only try to continue to conserve the little we have so as not to die of starvation.
In order to grow in this region, however, we cannot do it unless we change our mentality and we all get closer to the political discussion. Politics in Molise is considered only a way to have a fifteen-hour-a-week contract in some regional group, receiving in exchange a few euros for pizza on Saturday night. We are also missing the PNRR train and no one is doing anything to work on it. Now the important thing is to understand how to conquer the municipality of Campobasso, so as not to have it administered by the left, otherwise we do not have the infamous INSTITUTIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN.
Let’s move on, not being able to go back since the Delorean, the time machine from “Back to the Future”, is not made in Termoli.
With affection and esteem and with electric, but also endothermic greetings, I greet everyone and, consequently, say goodbye.
Frank of Biase
