Enrico Mattei

After World War II, he was given the task of dismantling the Italian petroleum agency Agip, a state enterprise established by Fascist Italy.In 1931, he became a member of the National Fascist Party (Italian: Partito Nazionale Fascista) created by Benito Mussolini but was not active in politics.In May 1943, he met the Christian Democracy leader Giuseppe Spataro, who introduced him into anti-Fascist circles in Milan against the Italian fascist regime of Mussolini.After 25 July 1943, when Mussolini was forced to resign, Mattei joined a partisan group of the Italian resistance movement in the mountains around Matelica, supplying them with weapons.[citation needed] Mattei's strategy was to use natural gas to support the development of a national industry in Northern Italy, sustaining the postwar boom known as the Italian economic miracle.Driven by his ambition to make ENI a player on par with the Exxons and Totals of the world, Mattei expanded abroad and turned his attention to the international oil markets.Mattei visited Moscow in 1959, where he brokered an oil import deal with the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War over intense protests from NATO and the United States.He also publicly supported independence movements against colonial powers, which allowed ENI to take advantage of postcolonial bitterness in places like Algeria.[8] To opponents who charged that he was helping Communists and making Italy dependent on a capricious flow from the Soviet Union, Mattei answered that he bought from the cheapest sources.In 1957, with ENI already competing with giants like Esso or Shell, rumour has it that Mattei was secretly financing the independence movement against colonialist France in the Algerian War.[citation needed] In 1960, after concluding the agreement with the Soviet Union and while negotiating with China, Mattei publicly declared that the American monopoly was over.As a consequence of his stance, Mattei was considered to have become a target of the French far-right terrorist organization Organisation armée secrète (OAS), opposed to Algeria's independence, which began sending him explicit threats.[citation needed] On a 27 October 1962 flight from Catania, Sicily, to the Milan Linate Airport, Mattei's jetplane, a Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris, crashed in the surroundings of the small village of Bascapè in Lombardy.[14] Gaetano Iannì, another pentito, declared that a special agreement had been achieved between the Sicilian Mafia and some foreigners for the elimination of Mattei, which was organized by Giuseppe Di Cristina.[citation needed] In 1986, former Italian Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani described the accident as a shooting, perhaps the first act of terrorism in Italy.[17] The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of sustainable development and global governance.
Marcello BoldriniChamber of DeputiesAcqualagnaBascapèAircrashChristian DemocracyWorld War IIstate enterpriseFascist ItalyNational Fuel TrustItalianMiddle EastSoviet UnionoligopolySeven Sistersoil industryoil reservesItalian ParliamentThe Mattei AffairFrancesco RosiGian Maria VolontéVittorio VallettaFiat S.p.A.province of Pesaro and UrbinoMarchecarabinieregendarmerietanneryMatelicaNational Fascist PartyBenito MussoliniUniversità Cattolica del Sacro CuoreGiuseppe SpataroItalian fascistItalian resistance movementNational Liberation CommitteeSilver StarmethaneCortemaggioreItalian economic miracleoil explorationItaliansEastern BlocCold WarAlgeriaTunisiaMoroccoAlgerian WarmonopolySaharaOrganisation armée secrèteCataniaLinate AirportMorane-Saulnier MS.760 ParisLombardyIrnerio BertuzziTime–LifeItalian Minister of DefenseGiulio AndreottiU.S. National Security Councilpro-independence movement in AlgeriaSicilian Mafiaexhumationexplosive devicePolytechnic University of TurinMauro De MauroSicilyCarabinieripoliceCarlo Alberto Dalla ChiesaBoris GiulianoTommaso BuscettapentitoAngelo BrunoAmerican MafiaGiuseppe Di CristinaFulvio MartiniAmintore Fanfaniterrorism in ItalypaladinTrans-Mediterranean PipelineFondazione Eni Enrico MatteiThe IndependentThe New York TimesJames A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyWayback MachineFinancial TimesAviation Safety NetworkSouth End PressPeter Dale ScottThe Independent on SundayLa Repubblica