Overzealous posturing ended up backfiring

Genova - The pretence went on for less than a week, in a vain two-fold effort to win support from French workers and public opinion. The threat of opting for the nationalization of France’s STX shipyards, the French government’s somewhat clumsy last-ditch attempt to stop an Italian advance, last week proved itself to be what everyone - starting from the “hard-line” faction of the French trade unions, who were sceptical from day one, - suspected it to be: little more than a bluff. Coming on the heels of the Korean shipping giant’s bankruptcy, it was inconceivable that the global shipowning sector would keep ordering ships from an entirely state-owned company.

It was also not practical on the manufacturing level to entrust the future of the Saint-Nazaire facility to the hands of DCNS, a respectable company, but whose main business is to build navy, not cruise, ships. The coolness displayed by Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri as he faced pressures from Paris in the end carried the day, leaving the French government no other option but to accept even worse terms than those envisioned last autumn: in fact, the deal sealed yesterday will mean that Italy will have a 54% stake in STX France, a percentage well above the danger level which so alarmed French politicians.

Perhaps not even Francois Hollande, who just over a year ago expressed his lack of opposition to the creation of an “Airbus of the seas” under Italian command, in talks with Matteo Renzi, could have imagined that it would end like this. The resulting deal is certain to satisfy global markets that could no longer abide with French delaying tactics, a perilous mix of nationalism and political short-sightedness, to the amalgamation processes sweeping through one of the fastest growing industries in the EU.

If France can be said to have committed any fault in the negotiations of the past months, it may indeed reside in this: to have attempted to place its own interests ahead of those of Europe, playing on workers’ fears, and courting that sort of populism that, as elections draw near, seems to spare no political faction.