While the presidential procession of Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Rome, the media and social networks spread the news of the cancellation of Carlo Rovelli’s speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024. In a letter sent to the scientist, the event commissioner Ricardo Franco Levi – who then turned around – had motivated the choice by claiming that the presence of the physicist would have been an “embarrassment” due to the controversy fate after his statements at the May Day concert. Rovelli on that occasion had not only pointed the finger at military spending and “salesmen of instruments of war”, but had also criticized Defense Minister Guido Crosetto for his closeness to Leonardo SpA, the Italian company «leader in the sector of Aerospace, Defense and Security», as reported on the company’s website. A real Italian excellence.
A growing sector
Made in Italy is not only food, art, design, fashion, commonly considered among the most driving sectors of the economy of our country and important outposts for its attractiveness. To these, for some time now, has been added a sector that is often ignored but is experiencing great development, especially since the outbreak of war in Ukraine: that of armaments.
Driven by the conflict on Europe’s doorstep, as shown by the data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), military spending grew in 2022, reaching a record figure of 2,240 billion, an increase of 3.7% compared to last year. The US has the largest military spending, followed by China. But Europe is no different: the 13% increase for the European Union as a whole is the continent’s largest annual increase in the post-Cold War period. Moreover, days ago, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, presenting the Asap plan (acronym of Act to Support Ammunition Production) to produce one million rounds of ammunition a year in Europe, mostly destined for Kiev, had opened the Recovery funds of all the Member States concerned to use in this direction. Overall, therefore, a good moment for companies operating in the arms sector.
Leonardo SpA, formerly Finmeccanica, is among the protagonists of the Italian exploits in the defense sector. 30.2% owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, a company that operates in over 100 countries worldwide and “is the protagonist of the main international strategic programs and technological partner of Governments, Defense Administrations, Institutions and companies”, with revenues exceeding 14 billion euros in 2022.
A colossus that is progressively downsizing the production division of the civil sector to favor that of the defense sector: the percentage of military revenue rose from 68% in 2018 to 83% in 2022. Leonardo it is an Italian excellence that is, therefore, turning into a war industry.
Closed-door meetings
The company’s shareholders’ meeting was held on 9 May, again behind closed doors thanks to the assistance of the Meloni government which extended the security measures of the Cura Italia Decree relating to the pandemic emergency. A move, that of Leonardo, which effectively inhibits the normal dialectic that must be carried out within a company, limiting dialogue, comparison of programs and, above all, the democratic participation of those who hold shares of capital and who in some cases can ask uncomfortable questions to management, as the Fondazione Finanza Etica, the foundation of the Banca Etica Group, and Rete Italiana do Pace e Disarmo since 2016, the year in which their critical shareholding activities began.
The latter consists of the purchase of a limited number of shares in a specific company to acquire the right to participate in the customary annual shareholders’ meetings and bring to the attention of the boards of directors violations of human rights or environmental disputes in which the companies themselves may be involved. Through critical shareholding, civil society organizations can come together to demand greater transparency on company data and on changes in company strategies.
Fondazione Finanza Etica owns a single share of Leonardo, therefore, not to make a profit, but with the specific objective of «pbring the campaigns of the Italian pacifist movements to a different level and extend their range of action», specified the representative of the Foundation, Mauro Meggiolaro, during a meeting held in Rome on 8 May, during which public the questions posed to Leonardo’s current board and the replies received (the questions were sent by post without face-to-face interaction, as specified above, and without even the possibility of live streaming). The company’s responses were deemed “secret and evasive” by critical shareholders.
Leonardo has not, in fact, provided details on data relating to exports of a military nature because the company responds with percentages of aggregated data by macro production sector and not by type of weapon system exported. The responses regarding the destination countries of product exports are also ambiguous. Leonardo claims that it has no ongoing negotiations for the sale of Eurofighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia. But, in fact, being part of the Eurofighter Consortium, precisely on the basis of the participation agreements, it contributed to the production of components for military jets which were then delivered by the United Kingdom to the Gulf country involved in the conflict in Yemen. A war in which Saudi coalition airstrikes alone have killed more than 20,000 civilians to date and which has produced one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world, forcing, according to data reported by Save the Children, more than 4.5 million people, including over 2 million children, to leave their homes, while 21.6 million people are in need of humanitarian aid.
Atomic Questions
With regard to the production of nuclear-capable weapon systems, Susi Snyder, coordinator of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2017, underlined how Leonardo wants to make believe not to participate. In fact, however, the company evades the questions posed by critical shareholders on the activities it carries out for the realization of the French ASMP-A program (a nuclear-capable missile, the most up-to-date in the French nuclear arsenal, produced by MBDA, European consortium constructing missiles and defense technologies, participated by Leonardo for 25%) and of the future program that will replace it, ASN4G. When asked whether the carrier of the missile can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads, he replies that “as an Italian company it is not involved in a French Eyes Only programme”. And he adds that “the products of the MBDA consortium are not part of Leonardo’s product catalogue”. Unless you allocate your capital to it. It is legitimate to ask cHow can a company that holds a quarter of the capital of a consortium not be interested in what the consortium itself does.
Leonardo, however, could not deny supporting the Italian Air Force in the maintenance of Tornadoes used to carry US nuclear gravity bombs and admitted to producing the wings of Lockheed Martin’s nuclear-capable F-35 aircraft.
Questions from critical shareholders also touched on the issue of conflict of interest, in particular the past advisory activities of the current Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and the alleged incompatibility of Roberto Cingolani for the position of CEO of the company by virtue of the provisions of the L.215/2004, known as “Severino” (since the twelve months from the cessation of government office have not yet passed at the time in which Cingolani himself was appointed to Leonardo’s top management). The former Minister of Ecological Transition has declared himself compatible. And so Leonardo replied to the criticisms in a tautological way: Cingolani declared that he did not incur the prohibition pursuant to article 2 of Law 215/2004 and, therefore, there are no profiles capable of configuring causes of ineligibility.
But for critical shareholders these answers are not enough. And they still promise battle.
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