Emiliano Fittipaldi and Marco Lillo (from L'Espresso )
The trip to Teramo to become a professor. The discount house with the body. The ruins that turns into a villa. Absences in Europe and to the City. Here is the true story of the Anti-lazy Minister
The first picture of Renato Brunetta in the memory of a colleague is that of a young teacher kneeling in the bushes in the garden of the university to do raid snails. There and then the teachers there if they did, but that evening, dinner guests at his home when he served the soup Brunetta, jumped on the chair recognizing the shellfish in a water bath. What a night. The real surprise was yet to come. Right at that moment the chef stood up and, without a hint of irony, solemnly announced: "Within ten years he won the Nobel. The very least, I am a minister." We were in the middle of the Roaring '80s, Brunetta was only an associate professor and an adviser to the Minister Gianni De Michelis.
It took more than 13 years, but eventually the former peddler Gondoletta plastic was speaking. In just seven months in office has become the brightest star of the executive Berlusconi. The war to conquer idle for months titles news. Polls crown him - his words - 'Lorella Cuccarini' government, the most loved by Italians. Brunetta in the witch hunt against civil servants knows no mercy. Restricted the system of permits for relatives of disabled people, he dreams the turnstiles to control the judiciary and mowed-nothing futures contracts. From the other demands rigor, meritocracy and workaholic, smart and hates the unnecessary use of public money, but his resume does not always shine for consistency. A 'The Express' is that the data on the presence and activities European Parliament does not make it a model member. The academic career is not the height of a Nobel. But there is one area in which the former director of Craxi and Giuliano Amato has proven to be a real economic gurus: the search for properties in low-cost, where he scored Affairs impossible for ordinary mortals.
soon Who has seen twenty-five, entered the Brunetta golden world of consultants (of which today criticized the abuse). He was appointed by the then Minister Gianni De Michelis coordinator of the Committee on the work and put a reform plan based on the flexibility that cost him the hatred of the Red Brigades and forces him to a life under guard. Then he became adviser to the CNEL, in the socialist area. In 1993, during the Clean Hands signing the proposed renewal of the PSI Gino Giugni. In 1995 he joined the team that writes the program Forza Italy and in 1999 joined the European Parliament.
Just in Strasbourg, had they applied the 'law of the turnstiles' invoked by the Minister, the professor would certainly look good. According to calculations made by 'The Express', in ten years went to the plenary session a little more than half the time. To be precise frequency touches 57.9 per cent. By these standards an employee (who does not earn € 12 000 per month) could stay at home 150 days a year. Holidays excluded. The minister himself has admitted in two letters to its performance: the 1999-2004 term has crossed the gate only 166 times, equivalent to 53.7 per cent of the total seats. "Almost no members of Congress should be under 50, because then the allowance for overheads is halved," officials said in Strasbourg. At the same time his colleague Giacomo Santini, PDL, was close to 98 percent of admissions, the League's Mario Borghezio traveling above 80 percent. The trend of Brunetta improves in the second term, when before leaving office to make the minister signs the list (his words) 148 out of 221. Much less, however, other Members of Forza Italy: Gabriele Albertini in the same period is 171 times, and Alfredo Antoniozzi Francesco Musotto 164, Tajani, as parent company, 203.
Productivity is measured by the activities of the MEPs. In the classroom and in committee. Again Brunetta does not seem to excel: in ten years he has completed only two reports, the so-called reports of address, one of the main measure to assess the performance of elected representatives in Strasbourg. The last was in 2000: the next eight years, the carnet by the minister is desperately empty except for written questions, which are - by all accounts - not very busy practice. He has made 78. A comparison? Congressman John Pittella, Pd, has submitted 126. Not only that. About 530 total sessions, Brunetta got up from his chair to demonstrate oral questions only 12 times, while interventions in the plenary (2004 to 2008) can be counted on two hands. The last was in December 2006, which took the floor to "denounce the attitude rude and frankly violent" security agents: do not think they wanted to enter. Even the hated communist politicians, who according Brunetta "have never worked in their lives", Brussels struggling much of him last term, the anti-globalization and Vittorio Agnoletto rifondarolo Francesco Musacchio have rates of attendance records, between 90 and 100 per cent.
If the participation in work in the classroom is not a follower of workaholic, even in committee Brunetta is too busy. Economist on his personal website us know that, deputy chairman of the industry, between 1999 and 2001 he attended meetings only half the time, while in 2002-2003, from delicate member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, has agreed to see a Once out of three. Strasbourg is far from beloved Venice, but it is not a problem away. Ca 'Loredan, in the district where he was city councilor and leader of the opposition from 2000 to 2005, the enemy holds the record of loafers. At 208 seats it showed only 87 occasions in four appearances out of ten, the worst among all the 47 directors of Venice. The handsome brick
THE MAP OF PROPERTY 'Brunetto
Brunette instead spent plenty of time to score the real estate business of her life. Today the minister has a heritage property with six (two inherited with his brother in half) spread between Venice, Rome, Ravello and Umbria, worth several million euro. "I like the houses and I paid for with loans," he always said. Indeed, to buy and renovate the mansion of 420 sqm with land and swimming pool in Umbria, Monte Castello di Vibio, near Todi, Brunetta has contracted a loan of 600 million lire in 1993. But to buy the house of Rome and Ravello, given the lowest prices, not needed. Let's start with that of Rome. In the late eighties the rampant professor she needed accommodation in the capital, where he was staying with increasing frequency to his political activities. An ordinary mortal would have been forced to turn to pay the stratospheric rents an estate agency market. Brunetta not.
Like many privileged dall'Inpdai unable to obtain an apartment, the public body should make the most of its real estate assets to secure pensions to executives of companies. Instead, at that time, like 'The Express' in the investigation said 'Our House' in 2007, the most beautiful apartments ended the usual suspects. Brunetta included. A holiday in those years was a dream for all Romans, even for managers, who would be enrolled all'Inpdai entitled to. The Pomponi says Thomas, a former head of RAI now retired, who submitted the application at the end of the Eighties: "Although I had been evicted, received no response. I contacted the president and general manager, wrote letters of protest, to no avail." Pomponi has paid two million pounds per year lease and then purchased at market prices like everyone else. The minister, however, after being tenant for more than 15 years with the canon that has never exceeded 350 € per month, has consolidated its privileged perpetuity: In November 2005 the assets of the entities it was sold. Brunetta buy along with the other tenants getting a discount of over 40 per cent of the estimated value. At the end the price obtained by the moralizing of the large public sector is 113 000 euro, for a house with 4 rooms land, located in one of the most beautiful spots in Rome. It is a fourth floor with two balconies and a lovely wooden veranda. Brunetta see the ruins of Rome and the Appia Antica park. An apartment similar to that of the minister is worth about half a million Euros with its 113 000 € economist could buy a box.
A dip in Amalfi Ravello The retreat was a real estate deal by Guinness. Brunetta, who calls himself "a genius", suddenly becomes small when browsing its possessions in Campania. "A steep property," he called this beautiful villa of 210 square meters of land surrounded by 600 meters of garden and orchard. Sitting in his patio Minister embraces his eyes blue and green, Ravello and Minori.
to buy the ruins which he then restored spent € 65 000 between 2003 and 2005. "How?" He says incredulously Erminia Sammut, owner of the estate agency Tecnocasa of Amalfi: "It seems impossible at that price my client has sold a barn with a pigsty." Today a ruin of 50 square meters costs about € 350 000, and a house similar to that of the economy far exceeds the one million euro. The minister has certainly spent a lot for the remarkable renovation, so that took a loan of € 300 thousand in 2003 shortly after the purchase that will eventually pay in 2018, but has certainly multiplied the initial investment.
But how do you turn a shack without value in a fine house? 'The Express' has seen the land and public acts Brunetta discovering that he bought two properties for a total of seven separate compartments land and entrusted the restoration to the best company of the place. After the treatment Brunetta, in place of the ruins materializes a house on three floors of 172 square meters plus outbuildings, stone finishes and sauna in building. For the land, however, housing is changed from civilian people. On the other hand, the seven rooms are now 24:30. How was this possible rise? "Different distribution of interior space, "say the papers. Mrs. Lidia Carotenuto, which until 2002 owned the lower level, reminds a bit 'of melancholy:" My house consisted of two rooms, up to 40 square meters have been and over there was another apartment (which measured 80 meters land, ed) in ruins. So now the town of Ravello is building a road that passes by the house of the minister. I would not have sold if they had nothing to be done before ...". Brunetta in the purchase of the outbuildings in 2005 was the surveyor Nicola Flower, who had also previously completed the planning practices. Fiore was then Councillor for the Budget of the municipality, led by Mayor Secondo Amalfitano, the Democratic Party. The relationship with the mayor is good: Brunetta enters Foundation Ravello. And this year, after the elections, Amalfitano makes the jump the fence, entered the PDL and leaves the coast to Rome where he was named its Ministerial Council. The Nobel
missed "I am a professor of labor economics, I won with my nails and teeth. I am one of the best of Italy, perhaps Europe," said Brunetta Alain Elkann, who Bounce called him "a master of pasta and beans" before asking the recipe of the dish. Economist Ada Becchi Collide, who worked in the same department for eight years, says bluntly that "Renato is not a scholar. It is mainly an organizer, which can give its best when it comes to pool resources. "At the Faculty of Architecture in Venice in 1982 comes after having gained the ability to associate professor in economics last year. As stated in Parliament Democratic Congressman John Bachelet, Brunetta professor becomes a real contest, but took advantage of a "big amnesty" for temporary workers who gravitated to the university. A definition challenged by the minister, who replied: I had all the titles.
In According to chair the curriculum published on the website of the University of Tor Vergata (where he has taught since 1991), while the young brunette could boast a few publications: a monograph of 500 pages and two essays. The first was composed of ten pages and was written in six hands, the second was a piece published by the reduction of 'Economics & Business', the journal of the Brodolini Foundation, a social area, which will lead Brunetta same in 1980. That's it? In the world of research there are several databases to evaluate the work of a scholar. Today Brunetta is in good position on that EconLit, which measures the number of relevant publications: 30, more than the average of his colleagues. The music changes when you look at the ISI-Thompson, the one that calculates the quotes that an author has obtained in later work: an indirect measure of the quality and certainly not infallible a publication, but allows an insight into the importance of a teacher. The citation index of Brunetta is still zero.
assessments of the indicators are questionable, but certainly not the academic world has ever loved: "The university has always seen him as a politician, not a scientist," recalls the former rector of Iuav of Venice, Marino Folin . In 1991, associate professor, manages to move the University of Tor Vergata. Waiting for the Nobel, at least try to become a professor participating in the national competition in 1992. At first it is placed among the 17 winners. But one commissioner, Bruno Sitz, puts everything into question. He writes a letter and, without referring Brunetta, denounces the lots and the lack of transparency of the selection criteria. "We also discussed Brunetta, and there were no objections," says a commissioner who asked to remain anonymous: "The situation was unusual: the majority of the board was in favor of including the current minister, but not on its merits, but because it was found that the agreement made everyone happy. However, there were candidates than himself. " The standoff lasted for months, then the president resigned. And the new commission excluded Brunetta. The Professor 'best in Europe' is rejected. Unbearable humiliation. So does appeal to the TAR, which gives it wrong. Then he appealed to the Council of State, but just before the decision is withdraw in good order. In 1999 it had managed to find a way to get on the chair. A long tour that crosses the Apennines and climbs the slopes of Gran Sasso, but that turns out to be profitable. It is finally getting the recognition Teramo: the standard bearer of meritocracy, rejected the national competition, managed to win the title of ordinary easier with the introduction of local competitions. In 1999, the invitation to participate in Teramo, Abruzzo, the third university. The place is just one but three winners are nominated. The chair is the candidate of the place but the other two get 'suitability'. Brunetta is one of the two and again Tor Vergata with the promotion. One last note. To read the cards of the competition, Brunetta until 2000 "is an associate professor at Tor Vergata." The oddity is that the official curriculum - posted on the website of the faculty of the minister - it is called "full professor since 1996." Four years before a new material mistake or excessive ego of the Nobel Failure?
Contributors Michele Cinque and Alberto Vitucci
(November 13, 2008)
Reported by Gino Paccione
