Who is saying that? 60 million Italians in choir or someone in particular? It seems to me very difficult that all 60 million Italians say the same thing.
I can help you.
The one who, more than others, has spread in Italy the idea that the Germans, to be precise the Franco-German axis, have contributed to destroy the Italian heavy industry is a French economist, Alain Parguez.
The French Alain Parguez stated that the main purpose of the French tecnocrats was to destroy Italy, and they were the French to involve the German in this purpose.
Alain Parguez is Emeritus Professor of Economics of the University of Franche-Comte, Besancon (France) and was associated with the Economics Department at the University of Ottawa.
http://www.neties.com/APE.htm
Alain Parguez's statements from a summit held 6 years, in 2012.
"the obsession of the French technocrats and their economists was precisely to destroy the industrial base of Italy"
"One of the main ideologues of the Euro, Jacques Attali, in 1985, in the final phase of the debate on the Maastricht Treaty, states verbatim: "our main objective is to destroy forever any industrial capacity outside Germany and France".
"85% of net German exports, and this also applies to France, are within the eurozone, which is why, contrary to what you might think, they will never peacefully accept the fact that Greece or Italy abandon the eurozone, precisely because the corporations, the big French and German companies, would suddenly find themselves without earnings. It is therefore absurd to accuse countries like Italy and Greece to be responsible for their own deficits; without the deficits of your country (Italy) and Greece, the situation of French and German companies would already be bankrupt."
"There is a fundamental point that too many people ignore: the Germans were extremely reluctant to enter the monetary union; there was a period, especially during the early 1970s, when monetary and fiscal policy was much more expansionary in Germany than in France; so why did the Mitterand regime oblige Germany to enter the European Union (EU)? The answer is simple: the Kohl government was financed entirely by French secret funds; and that's not all: there was a country that was hated by the French establishment for a very long time; and this country was just yours, Italy; the obsession of the French technocrats and their economists was precisely to destroy the industrial base of Italy; this is why they accused Italian governments of always being too soft about wages, unions and purchasing power.
How could the Italian economy be destroyed? Imposing a revaluation of the currency; and when Italy decided to adopt the euro, this was in conjunction with the decision to a revaluation of at least 45% of the price; therefore, suddenly, the Italians could no longer export outside the euro zone.
It makes me laugh when people say, "but if we leave the euro like we do? It will be a nightmare ". Italy has been completely destroyed by the euro!
Imagine the Italian industry relative prices, for example in the US market: with a sudden increase of 40%, it was clear that Italian exports would collapse overnight. Taking out of Italy game, at this point it was decided to seduce Greece, Portugal, Ireland, for the same reasons: to increase exports."