Tajani’s plans for Forza Italia
What did Antonio Tajani, elected national secretary of Forza Italia at the congress of the movement founded by Silvio Berlusconi, say
“It won't be an adventure”, sings Lucio Battisti from the loudspeakers shortly after 5pm at the Palazzo dei Congressi in EUR when Antonio Tajani is elected secretary of the congress, the first after the death of Silvio Berlusconi. The national secretary (the office of president is abolished, it remains on the symbol only for Silvio Berlusconi) is elected by acclamation, unanimously, in a waving of cards. No, it won't be an adventure.
All the background and predictions that saw Tajani as a transitional secretary, a king of beams, promptly unraveled after the first election as secretary last July at the national council a month after the death of the Knight. However, the parallelism is apt, with all the differences involved, in the fact that observers were wrong about Tajani as they were about Craxi when they saw the advent of a transition secretariat in Midas in July. Stefania Craxi, Italian senator, president of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission, recently appointed to the secretariat of Forza Italia during the Tajani era, said it immediately, a supporter of "rational reformism". With her in the secretariat also new entries such as the mayor of Ancona Daniele Silvetti who broke through the red wall of the Marche capital.
The territory. It is the obsession of the new secretary who recalls the imperative of the founding president: Forza Italia in every municipality. The four national deputy secretaries were unanimously elected: Deborah Bergamini, deputy, head of the Foreign Department; Alberto Cirio, president of Piedmont, Roberto Occhiuto, president of Calabria, Stefano Benigni, leader of the young Azzurri, who receives only one vote against. Bergamini, a historic former close collaborator of Cav, becomes the oldest deputy secretary.
Having decided not to go to the actual count, there is no deputy secretary. As for the only contrary opinion for Benigni, considered to be Marta Fascina, the former Cav member of parliament, absent from the EUR, the Italian group leader in the Senate Maurizio Gasparri at the table on the stage with his counterpart in the Chamber Paolo Barelli and the group in Europe, Fulvio Martusciello, jokes: "It's one thing, if things always went like this in life!".
Tajani, acclaimed with a long and moving standing ovation, immediately reminds us that he is not the irreplaceable and unrepeatable Silvio-Maradona, but promises: "I will give it my all". Tough and resolute, calm, not used to jokes and dramas, feet firmly planted on the ground, impassive in all these months to the somewhat pyrotechnic teasing of Matteo Renzi who had celebrated the Italian political funeral too soon, Tajani, like his entire career demonstrates, largely done in the not so simple competition of European summits, continues straight ahead with “Il Passo dell'Alpino”. That same "alpine step" with which he defines "our constant growth", which the polls talk about.
Tajani immediately sends a clear message to his allies: "They will never have anything to fear from us, but let no one ask us to give up our identity." Identity which is that of the party of the middle class, of the entrepreneurial bourgeoisie, of VAT numbers, the party that "no more increase in tax pressure, no to property and new taxes on the house". The main party of guaranteeism: separation of careers. The liberal party, in memory and in defense of "Navalny's voice of freedom" and pro-European but which does not say that everything is fine in Europe, Madame the Marquise. As stated by Roberta Metsola herself, president of the European Parliament, who came to Rome to pay homage to "my friend Antonio", her predecessor in Strasbourg and to pay homage to Berlusconi, who "changed the last thirty years of Italian politics". The leaders of the European People's Party, the first in Europe, and of the EU, from Ursula von der Leyen to Metsola, to the president of the EPP, Manfred Weber, to the Spanish leader of the Popular Party Fejio, to Antonio Lopez also of the EPP in Spain have all the eyes focused on Rome-Eur. A message to the new Italian leader, deputy prime minister and foreign minister also comes from Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis.
Tajani underlines that such strong attention from Brussels is the barometer of the state of health of FI whose role is to be a precious link between Italy and Europe to change things and improve them. Giving the Europeans more power to FI, an expression of the EPP in Italy, means, explains Tajani, having more influence to beat those "in the name of environmentalism who want to make pork out of industry and our agriculture".
As for the internal situation, the Italian secretary announces that the first messages of congratulations received were those from Marina and Pier Silvio Berlusconi. Further demonstration of support for what was "Berlusconi's most beautiful creation".
The Italian secretary sends a message of deference to the Head of State: "Forza Italia has always been respectful of the institutions and the rules". But Tajani does not fail to express his polite distinction on the episodes of yesterday's student demonstrations, after Sergio Mattarella's harsh warning that "authoritativeness cannot be measured with truncheons". A warning evidently addressed to the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi and immediately adopted by the left. But Tajani underlines: “If there are three or four who have made mistakes, they should be identified and punished but in the country of law, no to trials of policemen and carabinieri, of those police forces who risk their lives every day for a few cents. Who are humiliated and insulted like that policeman who remained immobile for a quarter of an hour in front of the insults of a no-tav or that policeman who remained immobile in front of an anti-vax who attacked him".
“They are children of the people and not of radical-chic”, gushes Tajani who recalls the words of Pier Paolo Pasolini in Valle Giulia in defense of the policemen. “I am the son of a soldier and I say these things with all my heart”, comments the blue secretary.
Then, no to cannabis, "I don't agree with Elly Schlein (secretary of the Democratic Party, ed. ), I've never had a joint in my life". The vice presidents of the Chamber and Senate Giorgio Mulè and Licia Ronzulli, the former group leader in the Chamber Alessandro Cattaneo, now head of the Departments, and those who had been included among the opponents applauded him. Ronzulli invites him to enhance all the specificities, then embraces him in a selfie. Tajani takes up Mulè's words on the invitation to "humility and courage". Letizia Moratti, head of the Consulta, is a little moved.
The new secretary thanks everyone, starting with the head of the organization Francesco Battistoni who with the Italian spokesperson Raffaele Nevi, deputy group leader in the Chamber and Alessandro Battilocchio, head of the electoral office, were the first group of close collaborators after the national council in July . Now to work, so as not to disappoint "Silvio-Maradona", who "is watching us from up there".
Tajani who, as Gasparri says, can easily go from a phone call with Blinken to an appointment with a municipal councilor of a municipality in his Ciociaria, Tajani, a leader with his feet firmly planted on the ground, is now joking. “Look, I'm making you skinny as a stick with all the work,” he says to one. And he recalls that thanks to the administrator Fabio Roscioli the financial situation has "significantly improved" because those who owed have recovered with the dues to be paid to the party.
He invites us to stay united, to all be like soldiers because "a general must first and foremost be a good soldier". Remember, the blue co-founder, that FI "is not a post office". University Minister Annamaria Bernini: “Antonio is our spearhead”. It won't be an adventure.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/i-piani-di-tajani-per-forza-italia/ on Sun, 25 Feb 2024 08:35:52 +0000.