Former chairman of Fiat Luca di Montezemolo declared at a conference that competitiveness was a great value. He supposed that if Ford has been allowed to buy up Alfa Romeo from IRI and let the German firm enter to the Italian car-industry, the firm would have been more competitive.

Then, Fiat – in contrast with the German manufacturer – received one hundred percent of the firm and contracted the payment of the 700-billion-lira deficit of the Milanesi trade and a 200-billion-lira investment, too. That decision was befriended by the unions and the government.

Translated by Ferenc Pozsonyi