Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday said the government will oppose the suit filed by ArcelorMittal Tuesday to get out of their contract to take over the former ILVA steel works, including its Taranto plant, the biggest in Europe.
"We will oppose" the request presented by ArcelorMittal to rescind the contract, Di Maio told Radio24.
"The contract must be respected", the foreign minister also said.
The suit arrived on the table of the president of the Milan court, Roberto Bichi, who on Wednesday assigned it to one of two sections specialized in business cases.
Bichi assigned the case to the section headed by judge Claudio Marangoni, judicial sources said.
The first hearing will be in May, the sources said.
The former ILVA group's three extraordinary commissioners are expected to file an appeal by Friday stating that the juridical conditions do not exist for the Franco-Indian steel giant, the world's largest, to pull out of the takeover deal.
Meanwhile tension in the government majority is high as the 5-Star Movement (M5S) does not want to reintroduce a 'penal shield' protecting manages from criminal action during a cleanup of the highly polluting Taranto plant whose lifting was cited by Arcelor to pull out of the deal.
Premier Giuseppe Conte and M5S's ruling partner, the Democratic Party (PD), are in favor of bringing the shield back, provided ArcelorMittal agree to remain.
The Lower House's finance commission, meanwhile, judged as inadmissible amendments presented by ex-premier and former PD leader Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva (IV) party and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party to reintroduce it.
M5S Senators on Wednesday voted a four point document on the case giving full confidence to Industry Minister Stefano Patuanelli, of the M5S, to deal with it.
Anohter key point is that the case is not linked to confidence in the Conte government.
The document also said that the penal shield is not up for discussion.
Should it come up again for debate because of legal reasons, the document said, it must be put to parliament in the presence of Conte.
ArcelorMittal has said it needs to pull out citing the lifting of the 'penal shield' and the necessity of shedding 5,000workers across the group, which employs over 8,000 people at Taranto and some 3,000 more at Genoa and Novi Ligure.
ArcelorMittal, meanwhile, is gradually shutting down production in Taranto.
Outout there is now running at 30% and steel shipments at Brindisi and coal and iron ore shipments at Taranto have stopped, unions said.
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