Confitarma: Anti-Mattioli faction gains traction

Rome - Everyone was hoping for a seamless transition, instead nominating a new leadership threatens to become a battlefield. Today, in Rome, the wise men of shipowners’ association Confitarma were supposed to conclude final consultations and emerge with an agreed-on compromise; Mario Mattioli in the presidency while Alcide Rosina would occupy the vice-presidency. Instead, after just three days, that consensus has unravelled. Now there’s a dissenting faction that they will have to come to terms with, one that has made it clear that it’s standing firm: “The game is not over yet,” said Stefano Beduschi, vice president of Italia Marittima, which is part of Taiwan’s Evergreen group headed in Italy by Pier Luigi Maneschi.

This represents the third rebuttal to the candidacy of Naples-based Mattioli in the span of a few days: “With him as president won’t we run the risk of having a third tug boat association? It’s true.” Beduschi should know, he’s the company’s representative in Confitarma: he knows well how the association works. “I read the interview with Stefano Messina (in Saturday’s edition of Secolo XIX-the MediTelegraph). It’s incomprehensible that his candidacy was struck down simply because he ceded 49% of his company to MSC.”

The manager finds parallels between the history of the company for which he works, from its origins as Lloyd Triestino and then when it was later acquired by global ship owner Evergreen - and the Messina family’s most recent venture, with the entry of MSC group: “Their business is similar to ours. Having MSC coming on board should not be considered a sin, just consider our own situation, we’re also a foreign-owned company.” In the case of the Messinas, however, it’s a particular “foreigner”, Gianluigi Aponte, who’s not well-regarded by the faction led by Grimaldi. The struggle for supremacy of the seas is pitting these two shipowners against each other: “But that doesn’t concern Italia Marittima, it’s their own business. Confitarma is not the venue to conduct a skirmish. And one cannot blame Messina either, for wanting to save his company through the entrance of Aponte.”

According to Beduschi the solution would be “to support the actions that Stefano Messina wants to undertake. His name has definite strengths, and we’ll make it clear to the wise men: Italia Marittima supports Messina.” Mattioli’s candidacy (“an esteemed and capable person”) does not satisfy the company because it “represents a different business from ours. There’s talk that if Mattioli becomes president then tug service operators would have three associations to represent them. Well it’s true. We operate international traffic, we have other concerns far from that line of business.” So, today, the wise men will be called to hear an opinion that is contrary to the Mattioli-Rosina two-headed solution. The “Neapolitan-faction”, however, seem unshaken, and they could retain numerical majority in the scheme: “I’m not so convinced. I am actually certain that there is still room to alter this pattern.” Should the dissent grow, simple arithmetic will have to make way for politics: a division on two fronts of the association may lead to a split. “We’re not talking about a possible exit from Confitarma. We’re waiting with confidence that things will run their course. But it’s clear that an association as presently envisaged would no longer represent us.”

DIPLOMACY

With the widening gap between opposing voices to an agreement on Mattioli, diplomacy has meanwhile been hard at play to prevent a final clash from happening today. The moves by Messina, Catani (GNV,) and, now, Beduschi have taken by surprise those for whom the Genoa-Naples pairing was an assured outcome. Any crack between the two sides could lead to the exit from the association of some operators.

Today over the course of the morning, the new members of the Confitarma Council will be elected, the body that will elect the new president, following the work of the wise men. Unity, however, remains elusive, and it is very likely that a second set of consultations will be needed to find a new solution. In the end Rosina in the presidency, alongside two deputies like Messina and Mattioli, could just tip the scale in favour of a compromise all can agree with.