The very president Rinaldi for Eni. The League: “Long live Antonio, we will fight for him”. The portrait

Rome. It’s Lega pride day. Antonio Maria Rinaldi president of Eni! “Why not him?” The Northern League not only want him as president, but are ready to fight for the president: “All for one, Rinaldi for all!”. Il Foglio gave the news (he is the candidate for the presidency of Eni) but as Northern Leaguers explain, now is the time to write it properly. First of all. Antonio Maria Rinaldi, affectionately called “Bombolo”, is not “Bombolo”. Question to the Lega source. So how did this nickname come about? We tell you about it. “Rinaldi has two great friends in the League. One is Alberto Bagnai and the other is Claudio Borghi”. Economists? “Exact”. Look for their photos. We did it. They toast together even ten years apart. They retweet each other. They are like Dante, Guido and Lapo. It’s true friendship. Well. It happens that a collaborator of Bagnai, to play the peacock, says to a journalist: “You know, Bagnai called Prof. Rinaldi. cylinder”. Bagnai, who is another sympathetic economist (oh well, everyone has his own ideas) let’s say eccentric, often uses this expression: “Bombolo”. But it has nothing to do with Rinaldi.

We even got hold of the original tweet that exonerates Rinaldi. It is not “Bombolo”. The Northern League: “Antonio is for all of us the prof. Rinaldi”. You are warned. If Antonio succeeds, and becomes president of Eni, he will take care of emptying the bottles of bullshit. But let’s start with the news. It is very serious and Salvini does not want to give it up. He rather he empties all the petrol pumps. If there is one thing that should be recognized, it is this: “I don’t forget who fought for our ideas and Antonio did”. Do you remember Marcello Foa? When the name of him as president of Rai began to circulate, everyone in chorus: “But it’s a hoax”. You know how it ended. Foa was elected president. Just to say that when the League gets one thing in its head, it doesn’t give up. They have it hard, oops. What did you understand? The head. Always the same. Let’s go back to him. Today Rinaldi is a Lega MEP. Colleagues: “On attendance, nothing to review. There is always”. CV? “We turn it over to you”. When the League moves it means business. Birth. Rinaldi was born on February 27, 1955. Now one will say: it’s a coincidence. But no. The League has no doubts: “It’s a sign from heaven. Rinaldi was born on the same day as Claudio Descalzi, destined to remain at Eni”.

The protagonist on Twitter mocked by the Pd and the Third Pole is a swordsman. “The undersigned was already General Manager of the financial parent company of ENI when you were in elementary school”. He refers to the eighties. Well yes. Rinaldi, before becoming the euro skeptic Rinaldi, invited to all the broadcasts, before being mistaken for the comedian Max Tortora (they are separated at birth) was also general manager of Sofid, Eni’s financial parent company, the heart of Eni. To the friends who spoke to us: “Il Foglio was good but they wrote director. Well, no. I was general manager.” And what a director. He oversaw the listing on the Stock Exchange of the Nuova Pignone company but also of Enimont, the only one to never receive a guarantee notice. A technician. And before? He has shot more banks than Mario Draghi. Banco di Roma, Banco Centro-Sud, Figeroma, American Service Bank, Fideuram. The Northern League friend: “It was even at Consob! With market inspection function. Wait wait”.

Other appendix. In 1994 Rinaldi was a member of the Board of Enav. The university part knocks you down, dear know-it-alls. There’s that too. Lecturer in Chieti and Pescara and at Link Campus University. Scientific publications. And here it gets a bit tough for the sheet. The books: “The failure of the Euro”; “Europe Kaputt! (S)sold for Euro?” and the last one “Sovereignty belongs to the People and the Spread”. As we write, the Pd and the Third Pole ask: “The government denies it”. The League: “But to deny what? We won the elections”. It’s the truth, until proven otherwise. So Rinaldi, of noble origins, is the historic pupil of Paolo Savona, current president of Consob. One evening, the former Minister of the Economy, Giovanni Tria, said: “Paolo is a genius and like all geniuses he is eccentric”. Here, we call them “no euro” they, in their municipality, define themselves as “eccentric”. Geminello Alvi even wrote us a beautiful book (Adelphi). But they were other eccentrics.

Among Rinaldi’s teachers there is also the jurist Giuseppe Guarino, former finance minister. But then what has happened in these years? Rinaldi becomes a regular guest on broadcasts. He is a Eurosceptic and does not regret it. The Lega supporters who make a bridge with him and us observe: “History proved him right. After fifteen years, the rules will finally change in Europe. Antonio was just early.” But Antonio why doesn’t he speak, why doesn’t he defend himself? “Antonio until Eni’s board appoints him president he will not speak. He knows that Eni is a listed company”. Ah! But what does Antonio say about the controversies? “Antonio says that he has a CV and what a CV. Read it. And then let’s finish it. There are those who have sold soft drinks and have been ministers”. But does Forza Italia support him? “Antonio says that the entire center-right is united. Obviously Antonio tells them to us because Antonio doesn’t talk to the newspapers”. Yes yes, until the Board of Directors… “You understand. Well. Get better, luckily”. But Antonio, the economist Antonio, why is Antonio eccentric? “Ugh. Antonio is just ahead of the times.” So does the League confirm that it will fight for Antonio? “Sure. Thanks to you from the Foglio, the Lega has one more reason to support it today. Antonio is the beautiful rarity. Expertise, passion. He is centre-right ”. But what is Antonio like, what character does he have? “Oh, Exquisite. Do you think he would have replied to you about the Foglio too which he obviously didn’t do, clear right?

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• Carmelo Caruso

• Carmelo Caruso, journalist in Palermo, Milan, Rome. He started at La Repubblica. Today he works at the Foglio