John Elkann: “My mother was naturally violent but I sought peace. Putin came to Villar Perosa”

It’s called “In the Secret World of John Elkann” the long one reportage that the French weekly Le Point dedicates to the president of Stellantis. It is a work created over the course of several months and the author Beatrice Parrino retraces the stages of Elkann’s career up to current events.

The Agnelli legacy

On this point John Elhann says: «I have multiplied attempts at conciliation in the hope of finding peace, the last one after the death of my grandmother.” I visited my mother”. The article dedicates ample space to the story of the Agnelli legacy, which has lasted for 20 years. The Elkann brothers speak dand the behavior of their mother Margherita who tried to convert her children to the Orthodox religion. Elkann speaks of «religious fanaticism, bigotry. She wanted us to join her husband’s orthodox universe – she says – and impose it on us, in a certain sense, so that he would accept us. In vain.”

The sister Ginevra declares: «My mother was a woman with fragile nerves». And on her mother’s relationship with her brother John, Ginevra adds: “When he needed her most, when he found himself alone with Fiat, she turned her back on him.” On the mother, John Elkann states: «He is a naturally violent person, full of resentment. He denigrated our father. Dialogue is impossible with her. Faced with this inability, it resulted in violence, verbal or physical. He can’t stand not being right. The slightest opposition ended in punishment. The situation worsened with his new life: having these three children from a previous marriage was a problem.” To the question: if it were slaps, Elkann replies: «More. More than anyone, it was Lapo who suffered.”

Putin’s visit to Villar Perosa

Another topic. And here memories resurface that take us back to our maternal grandfather Gianni Agnelli: «A scene resurfaces from the past. It takes place in Villar Perosa, cradle of the Lambs. The family property is full of people; Gianni is there, his wife too, as are Margherita and Serge de Pahlen. A guest of the latter is having a conversation by the pool. “It was Vladimir Putin.”. It is an unpublished fact always reconstructed by the weekly in the reportage.

“Stellantis ready to compete”

So a chapter of the report dedicated to Stellantis and the car. «Our job is to be competitive, and America is our largest market. I don’t feel any feelings of insecurity. Look: Fiat became FCA and then Stellantis». And he explains: «The important thing is to set yourself a realistic ambition and have the humility to understand what it means to be ready to compete», adds Elkann, who also remembers the years of the relaunch. «Since 2004, with the arrival of Marchionne, things have changed, not because the problems, difficulties or complexity have disappeared, but because of the way in which we have faced them. We no longer wanted to live in a world of fairy tales, but in reality.”