English
Italiano 
Español The Par Condicio of Big Tobacco
Banks and oil are targeted by Tremonti, but the new minister has forgotten cigarette manufacturers.
Italian ministers Tremonti and Visco
Out goes Visco, the Minister of the Economy of the center-left government of Romano Prodi, and in comes Tremonti, minister of Silvio Berlusconi's new center-right government, but for the pockets of the Italians, it doesn't look like there will be much change.
“It's the banks and the oil companies that will have to make the greatest sacrifices in this economic period that is not good”, declared the new minister on the 10th of May during the TV interview program “In Mezz'Ora" of Lucia Annunziata, broadcast on RaiTre.
But therès also that huge debt run up by Philip Morris with Italy (120 thousand billion* of the old Lire, equal to 60 billion euro, without counting the interest), and the 2 billion euro of greater tax revenues every year, that the government could collect if it substituted its minimum cigarette price policy with taxation on all cigarettes.
All this money doesn't seem to interest anyone in the government, right or left.
The Latin expression “Par Condicio” refers to criteria adopted by television broadcasters, which are meant to guarantee fair visibility to all the main political parties. Par Condicio, an important ingredient of Italian political life, comes from the principle applied in the United States of Equal Time (or Fairness Doctrine).
* Based on the sentence of the Italian Supreme Court – the Suprema Corte di Cassazione, of 21 December 2001, the total tax evasion of Philip Morris in Italy amounts to 120 thousand billion old Lire.
Today after the sale of the ETI – Italian Tobacco Manufacturing - to British American Tobacco, only part of the production of MS cigarettes has remained in Italy, and it is planned that this part, too, will be transferred outside the country. Even our famous “Nazionali” brand will be entirely produced abroad.
For the intrepid Tremonti, the banks will have to pay more taxes if they don't lower their mortgage costs for families, while for the oil companies, the price to pay would be the fruit of their greater revenues thanks to the increasing price of crude oil.
“We believe that they, too, must make some sacrifices”, declared the minister, forgetting, however, the cigarette manufacturers. Could the tobacco lobby be stronger even than those of the banks and oilmen?
The “Seconda Repubblica” and the Cigarette Producers
The picture that emerged following Mani Pulite, as far as the cigarette market was concerned, showed a political class still totally servile towards the tobacco multinationals.
While far back in 1991, Ministers Scotti (DC) and Formica (PSI), in open conflict with Philip Morris, swept Marlboros, the most smuggled cigarettes, from the Italian market (the measure lasted only for a few months), after Mani Pulite, that swept away both Scotti and Formica, the music changed completely.
In today's Second Republic, Philip Morris has centred all its targets: it has imposed its price policy and its marketing policy, it has obstructed the competition of other brands, and it has been exonerated from paying taxes.
The minimum price was introduced during the “second” Berlusconi government, it continued to exist through the following Prodi government, and seems to be forgotten, now too, with the return of Berlusconi's third government.
Big Italy or little Italy?
What can Philip Morris have done for its Italian backers to obtain favours of this magnitude? Maybe a yacht, maybe “esteem and consideration”, maybe it “valorised” them professionally, maybe it advanced their careers and those of their relatives.
These professional politicians and these managers, who after their “Laurea” in Italy, go to the United States to get their “Masters” (considered extremely elegant in Italy), apparently have never been taught bookkeeping and have never learned to protect money from thieves and crooks.
We can only hope that some day, someone, in this country of brown-nosers, will feel the need to make a careful enquiry, that will point the spotlight on these issues and apply, also to the world of tobacco, the "par condicio".
“Mani Pulite”
Judge Saverio Borrelli, ex Procuratore Generale of Milano, protagonist of “Mani pulite”
Mani Pulite was a legal enquiry into corruption involving the illegal financing of political parties, and it disrupted the Italian political and financial world in the early 1990s.
The consequences of the Mani Pulite investigation contributed to the end of the so-called Prima Repubblica- First Republic - and to the disappearance of the government parties most involved in the illegal financing system: like the Christian Democrats - Democrazia Cristiana (DC) and the Socialist Party - Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI).
They offered me 30 billion lire (15 million Euro)
Here is an interview to Ernesto Del Gizzo, general director Italian State Monopoly, published in 2000 by the daily newspaper La Padania.
"Philip Morris was interested in taking over the Italian market. It had already done this for many years, imposing its price policies and its marketing strategies; it had limited the competition of other brands; we had to fight its advertising, the diversity of prices on the market, the production costs and the taxation compared to standard criteria, its smuggling, the exoneration from paying taxes. I fought this; I proposed measures that could have restrained Philip Morris, but the Minister wouldn't listen to me.
I fought this; I proposed measures that could have restrained Philip Morris, but Visco wouldn't listen to me. They offered me 30 billion lire (15 million Euro) and promised to reinstate me in my position as Managing Director of the Monopolies”.
The complete interview with Del Gizzo - the secessionist newspaper La Padania
No Comments