国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Thousands of jobs at stake in negotiations over future of Italys Ilva steel_时事

国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Thousands of jobs at stake in negotiations over future of Italys Ilva steel

Italian media reports say that Italian officials are split over whether to reverse course on the lifting of the legal immunity. But Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and other top officials have drawn a hard line in refusing to allow the job cuts.

On Tuesday, ArcelorMittal filed a suit in a Milan court to allow it to pull out of its 2017 contract. Judge Roberto Bichi assigned the case for study on Wednesday, and Local media reports say the case could open as soon as early 2020.

In the meantime, the future of the plant is cast in doubt.

Miceli told Xinhua that if ArcelorMittal pulls out for good, the state could take control of the plant under a special kind of administrative status, which was the case before ArcelorMittal took over in 2017.

But a long line of leading Italian officials including Vincenzo Boccia, head of the Confindustria industrial association and Minister of Economy and Finance Roberto Gualtieri have said that option is not a viable option.

"A nationalization of Ilva is not in the cards," Gualtieri told reporters Tuesday.

According to ABS Securities economist Oliviero Fiorini and other observers, any closure of Ilva or a significant scale-back of the company's operations could have a devastating impact on the economically depressed area around Taranto, where the plant is located.

"The Conte government is promising to turn Italy's slow-growing economy around and it certainly won't help if they add thousands of people to the unemployment rolls in Apulia (Puglia)," ABS Securities economist Oliviero Fiorini told Xinhua, referring to the Italian region that includes Taranto.