Who Domenico Arcuri is and what he does.
Among friends they call him “Hello, how am I”. And the anecdote is not a good presentation for a commissioner appointed by the government to take care of saving Italians from the pandemic. The nickname was revealed by the director of the Foglio, Claudio Cerasa, a guest on the Tagada broadcast on La 7, wondering how a person manages all these things and also find the time to appear on television. WHAT ARCURI DOES
From March 16, 2020, Arcuri holds the role of Extraordinary Commissioner for the implementation and coordination of the measures necessary for the containment and contrast of the epidemiological emergency Covid-19. After coordinating the reopening of schools in the summer (who does not remember the controversy over the impossible ban for the delivery of the desks, the protests of the producers, the useless wheels, the old desks destroyed in some schools), now Arcuri will always be in charge of the plan distribution of the vaccine, once available in Italy. WHERE ARCHURI COMES FROM
Domenico Arcuri was born in 1963 in Melito Porto Salvo, in the province of Reggio Calabria. The Commissioner chosen by the Conte government to manage the pandemic and for 13 years CEO of Invitalia, the national agency for investments and business development 100% controlled by the Ministry of Economy. Although he received the post of extraordinary commissioner, he was also reconfirmed at the helm of Invitalia, for the fifth time, a few months ago. Two important things must be remembered about Invitalia: the first is that the Invitalia subsidiary, Mediocredito centrale (Mcc), has saved and now controls the Banca Popolare di Bari. The second is that the director of Invitalia and Arcuri’s true right-hand man is called Ernesto Somma and was economic advisor to former minister Raffaele Fitto, now MEP,STUDIES AND FIRST ASSIGNMENTS
After attending the military school of Nunziatella in Naples, in 1986 Arcuri graduated in Economics from Luiss in Rome with a thesis on “Economic and social profitability of public investments in the South”, then he began a long career between public and private. As reported by Repubblica, Arcuri began working at the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (Iri), where he dealt with the companies of the group operating in the telecommunications, information technology and radio and television sectors. In 2004, after leading Arthur Andersen’s Telco, Media and Technology in Italy, he became CEO of Deloitte Consulting. ARCURI SEEN FROM THE ESPRESSO
“Arcuri is adaptable. Brought to Sviluppo Italia by Massimo D’Alema, he relocated himself without batting an eye with the Silvio Berlusconi-Gianni Letta system. With equal flexibility and returned to the good graces of the yellow-pink rulers thanks to the Minister of Economy Roberto Gualtieri, a Dalemiano antemarcia who entered national management in 2007, the year of Arcuri’s debut among the state boyars “, wrote Gianfrancesco Turano of L’Espresso weekly. A CIVIL PROTECTION EXPERT
In the headquarters of the Civil Protection, he wrote Repubblica, “Arcuri is already at home”. The newspaper justifies Arcuri’s expertise by writing that: “Invitalia operates as a central purchasing agency for public administration contracts and since the emergency began it has dealt with the procurement of medical equipment and equipment”. Other sources add that in Invitalia he led the plan, wanted by the Government, of reorganization and relaunch of the company. A company that today manages the main incentives for new businesses, such as Smart & Start Italia and Fondo Italia Venture for innovative start-ups. But there doesn’t seem to be much of civil protection. THE CHOICE OF CONTE
According to Conte’s plans – wrote the Corriere della Sera – Arcuri was chosen because the premier was looking for a technical and non-political figure useful in managing the post-emergency phase, an ad hoc undersecretary headed by the Prime Minister. Arcuri was thus selected to strengthen the distribution of healthcare tools and set up new factories. As reported by L’Espresso, “the spark with Conte would have been triggered on a loan of 280 million euros for the development of the Capitanata, in the province of Foggia dear to the Prime Minister, which Arcuri would have helped to unblock”. THE RELATIONS OF ARCURI
L’Espresso also explained Arcuri’s network of institutional relations: “In the thirteen years spent leading the support company for Italian companies, Arcuri has multiplied his relational spectrum thanks to his ex-wife, the TV journalist Myrta Merlino, and to her man of institutional relations Stefano Andreani, who passed away in 2017, knight of the Holy Sepulcher and former spokesman for the Divo Giulio Andreotti. Between an elegant dinner with the engineer Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and a Confindustria conference, Arcuri had to untangle himself among the numerous hot potatoes of a declining entrepreneurial landscape “.
Arcuri is therefore, according to Espresso, an adaptable person. “Brought to Sviluppo Italia by Massimo D’Alema, he relocated himself without batting an eye with the Silvio Berlusconi-Gianni Letta system. With equal flexibility and returned to the good graces of the yellow-pink rulers thanks to the Minister of Economy Roberto Gualtieri, a Dalemiano antemarcia who entered national management in 2007, the year of Arcuri’s debut among the state boyars ”. ALL ROADS BRING ARCURI
As the number one of Invitalia, writes La Stampa together with many other newspapers, “Arcuri has followed the reindustrialisation of areas in crisis such as Termini Imerese and the reclamation of the Bagnoli area. Also for this reason and the man on whom Conte and the Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli, have aimed to pilot the public intervention in the former Ilva of the reluctant Franco-Indian group Arcelor Mittal ”. “Invitalia itself – continues the newspaper’s account – has been identified as a possible shareholder partner and guarantor of the state in the company that controls the Taranto steel giant”. And again: “He was spoken of at the time as a possible candidate for the top management of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and, more recently as CEO of Leonardo in place of Alessandro Profumo and, of CEO of Eni in place of Claudio Descalzi “.THE TASKS OF ARCURI
In the midst of the first wave of Covid, Arcuri, as extraordinary Commissioner for hospital emergencies, took the field to coordinate the entire efficiency chain of the health system, such as the supply of equipment or the monitoring of beds divided by categories – or the creation of new structures. Work for which Arcuri coordinated with Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection Department. Then he was appointed responsible for the reopening of schools in safety, but the story of the benches with wheels was full of problems and embarrassments, like the story of the mini company that won a maxi contract worth 45 million euros. Arcuri was then appointed to manage and supply intensive care, collecting criticism and controversy here too,ARCURI’S PRAISE TO ARCURI
During a press conference reconstructed by Il Giornale last June 5th, Arcuri gave himself some “pats on the back alone”. “Yesterday, however, he exaggerated – writes the newspaper – in the absence of sense, both of measure and of humor”. “How the extraordinary commissioner defined his performance
‘Extraordinary’. And he also remained serious as he said it. ‘For once – he was self-satisfied – it would be nice if we realized that we were extraordinary: facts prevailed over chatter, virtuosity over self-harm ”. THE FIGURACCIA OF THE MASKS
As Il Giornale analyzed, almost everything went wrong for Arcuri. “Yet in the overall disaster that has been the emergency, few things have worked so systematically as badly as those managed by Arcuri. Yesterday he even bragged about the Immuni app. Yet it is clear that distributed two months ago would have been downloaded by all Italians, today few want it and it is of dubious effectiveness. Or the tampons that Arcuri chased in vain all over the world while in Veneto Professor Crisanti found a do-it-yourself system. Up to the masterpiece of masks.
The commissioner decided from the beginning that they should be produced in Italy and set aside a fund available to those who reconverted the company. In the meantime, he began to discourage imports with infinite checks, making it difficult to purchase abroad, stumbling upon various fools such as the delivery of 600,000 unusable Chinese masks to the doctors’ order. It peaked on April 26 when he set the selling price at 50 cents, offsetting the companies he had encouraged to produce and pharmacies. And it ended like this: unobtainable masks, heavy compensation to companies and his invective against sofa liberalists “. ARCURI’S (DISAPPEARED) PLAN
As Carlo Terzano reconstructed on Start Magazine last May: “In 10 days the production of the masks will start with the machines we have helped to make”, Arcuri said last May 2nd. His statements are also reported on the website of the Ministry of Health. “In mid-June – he explained – our machines will produce 4 million masks per day; in mid-July 25 million and from the end of August onwards 35 million masks per day “. WHERE ARE THOSE PRODUCED IN ITALY GONE
But on 8 May, on his Facebook profile, the journalist of Il Foglio Luciano Capone, pointed out: “Of the 5 companies with which Commissioner Domenico Arcuri signed the agreement for masks at a political price (€ 0.50 retail ), not all of them have started production yet: some are new in the sector, until yesterday they were involved in digital; contracts range from € 0.24 to € 0.465 per template; the quantities are very far from the target of 660 million pieces. Reality struggles to adapt to the ordinance “. According to the investigation of the Roman newspaper, the five companies are: Veneta Distribuzione Srl of Grafica Veneta, Parmon Spa, Mediberg srl, Fab and Triboo for the import of devices from China. THE STATE PRICE AND OTHER MAGAGNE HAVE BLOCKED EVERYTHING
“What happened to the imported Arcuri masks instead,
” Start Magazine wondered. “A series of – very predictable – consequences. First of all, the state price blocked supply: there are countless pharmacies that have decided to withdraw them from the shelves in order not to lose money. Even producers and distributors prefer to block imports rather than sell them lower, waiting for fair rewards that will never arrive ”. THE SUN 24 HOURS AND THE “MESS” OF ARCURI MASKS
Il Sole 24 Ore writes: “The mess on state masks at popular prices is the result of a mix of variables. First of all, the announcement effect of an imposed price that blocked supplies for too many days: the brokers stopped working for Italy waiting for the choice on the price that took too long and, among other things, the final price decided by the commissioner. Arcuri – 50 cents (lower than many countries) – if convenient for citizens, it has made our market less attractive. Pharmacists were no longer able to stock up, thus selling the last stocks they had (they will be restored – and Arcuri’s promise – if they bought at a higher price) ”. THE SALARY OF ARCURI
An article in the newspaper founded by Carlo De Benedetti sent Arcuri into a rage, and he started a lawsuit to protect his “image and reputation”. Il Domani wrote that “The amount has not been returned, the commissioner [Arcuri] received 1,467,200 euros more than the legal limits, and now the Finance Police, delegated by the deputy attorney general Massimo Lasalvia (the file and passed to the magistrate Gaia Palmieri), acquired data and documents to investigate two issues. The first concerns the verification of the remuneration received, in recent years, by Arcuri and the other managers of Invitalia. The second issue concerns a law that allows companies that issue financial instruments to derogate from the ceiling on fees.THE ANSWER OF FELTRI
“In my career I had only met people – powerful and otherwise – who felt damaged by incorrect news, by offensive epithets, by inappropriate comparisons. It had never happened to me to find someone who feels damaged by real news, however, reported in a short article at the bottom of a page. But the law allows Arcuri to ask for damages from the newspapers also in this case, it will then be up to a judge to decide. Pending the outcome, readers and citizens will evaluate the opportunity of one of the most powerful men in Italy to initiate damage claims against a newspaper that publishes true news about him in the midst of a tragic pandemic that we thought absorbed all the energy of the extraordinary Commissioner ”.WHAT IS HIDING BEHIND THE DIATRIBA
According to Start Magazine, “behind Arcuri’s war on the newspaper born on the initiative of Carlo De Benedetti, there is also a de facto diatribe within the board of directors of the company that publishes the newspaper Domani. In fact, according to rumors gathered in Roman legal circles, Arcuri will be defended by the firm of the well-known lawyer Grazia Volo, who is one of the directors of the company of the Debenedettian newspaper chaired by Luigi Zanda. Not only that: instead, the daily newspaper directed by Feltri will be defended by a lawyer who is also a member of the board of the Editoriale Domani spa: Virginia Ripa di Meana ”. Ah, to conclude, Arcuri is also Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
(Article published on policymakermag.it
