Electrolux to the Chinese? Now even washing machines are geopolitical

Italian trade unionists have been waiting for days for an official statement from Electrolux that categorically denies it the market rumors that the Swedish household appliance giant is about to switch to the Chinese Midea. Because after criticizing the choice of Whirpool, which only a month ago announced in turn that it was handing over its European activities to Arcelik’s Turks, suffering a second blow would be traumatic. It must not be forgotten, in fact, that at the time of that announcement, in more than a few declarations, the representatives of Fim-Fiom-Uilm had contrasted the sloppy and defeatist strategy of the Americans with the choices, which they say were courageous, by Electrolux which only in Italy He ran over 100 million on the Solaro plant after renovating the Susegana and Porcia plants. But the intertwining of the two dossiers makes the “mystery of white” even more compelling: Midea had already come forward to buy Whirlpool but in the end the American owners had preferred, mainly for friendshoring reasons, the Turks to Chinese giant with a turnover of 50 billion. So does an industry such as that of household appliances, which cannot be compared in the least to that of semi-conductors, also obey the rules of current geopolitics in the new international context?