"Decisive day." But everything on the former Ilva has been postponed until September.

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Taranto . In the end, no program agreement was reached, just the signing of a report postponing everything until mid-September, following the outcome of the tender for the sale of the former Ilva plant . Thus ended today's meeting between Adolfo Urso and local authorities. It all began at the end of June, when the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy announced he had cleared his agenda for two days for indefinite negotiations with local authorities. If they didn't sign an agreement immediately, they would have to close Ilva by July. Since then, nothing has been signed, and Ilva is still not closed, albeit in a comatose state. Only the President of Puglia, Michele Emiliano, who has long been in agreement with Meloni's minister, showed up at today's meeting. Taranto Mayor Piero Bitetti and Provincial President Gianfranco Palmisano joined remotely, unwilling to sign a worthless agreement. The meeting ended with no results, and the signing was postponed until mid-September . This effectively contradicts the urgency Urso advocated at the beginning of this story. Just as the very usefulness of the agreement, now that the tender has already been updated according to the new decarbonization criteria (or so the Ministry of Mimit says; we can't verify this since the tender is not public). " I appeal to everyone's responsibility to understand the need to send a positive signal today to investors who must evaluate whether to submit a bid and what kind of bid for the former Ilva," the minister said yesterday. "This is why we hope the agreement will be signed ." So, if until now, signing this agreement was necessary for the Environmental Authorization, then to overcome the imminent Milan court ruling, then for the tender, now it becomes necessary to prevent investors from fleeing. Therefore, if the tender were to fail (who would ever invest €10 billion for a plan approved by the government in Taranto), the blame will fall squarely on the mayor. While Emiliano, dissociating himself from his protégé and reneging on the entire "no Ilva" political line he's been advocating for ten years ("It's a machine gun shooting at people, if I could, I'd shut it down"), today considers the steelworks' closure "a disaster," strategic steel, and, a far cry from the days when he challenged every decree from Renzi and Calenda, he will not appeal the authorization just issued by the Meloni government, extending the blast furnaces' operation for another 12 years. Why this sudden about-face?

A news item emerged yesterday afternoon directly from the ministerial table, explaining it: "The President of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, is ready to sign the agreement, also on behalf of the Democratic Party." Pretending to forget that the CSM and the Constitutional Court have barred him from party life while he is a prosecutor, the news item sent from Palazzo Piacentini describes a story that is now more political than industrial. A strategic axis has been created on several fronts between Conte, Decaro, and Renzi on one side, and Schlein and Emiliano on the other. The chessboard is political, starting in Puglia but reaching all the way to Palazzo Chigi. It all stems from the regional elections. Decaro has said he agrees to run for governor as long as Emiliano does not run on the regional council list. The former heir apparent wants to "kill his father," or at least avoid the risk of finding himself on stage with someone who claims he entrusted him to the clan leader's sister.

Conte has sided with him, distancing himself from Emiliano after the regional Tangentopoli scandal. Naturally, Renzi's support was inevitable, having always distanced himself from the PM governor due to his NIMBY and populist crusades. Meanwhile, Elly Schlein, fearful that Decaro might steal the Nazareno from her, despite his promise to fight the local bosses, defends Emiliano's candidacy. This dispute has led to the Ilva plant. Last week, Decaro, along with the Five Star Movement, questioned the European Commission about the plant's pollution. Meanwhile, Schlein, abandoning the environmentalist front, called two days ago in a call with Antonio Misiani, Emiliano, and local Democratic Party representatives, asking for the agreement with Urso to be signed. Without even asking, as Andrea Orlando did, the only thing that proves its feasibility: how much money is needed, and who will provide it. It's enough for them to say they've signed the decarbonization agreement. The trouble will then be Decaro's. From the Region, from the Nazarene, or from Chigi.

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