Tajani to internal rivals: “Those who have criticism say it to their faces”
Secretary without deputy, in strict compliance with the statute, until the congress which will be held before the European elections in early June 2024. Thus Antonio Tajani ‘designed’ the beginning of the new Forza Italia era, with his unanimous election, one month and three days after the death of Silvio Berlusconi. On stage in the event hall of the Parco dei Principi hotel in Rome, the deputy prime minister arrives with two surprises. The first, most important, is the “greeting” message sent by the Knight’s children.
“Dear friends, thank you for the support and closeness you have always given to our father – writes the Berlusconi family -. Thank you for everything you will do to keep alive the ideals of freedom, progress and democracy that have always characterized his thinking and actions. A big hug to everyone, with best wishes for a good job”. In truth, the message is accompanied by a second letter from the former premier’s family, which Tajani keeps confidential, limiting himself to defining it “very affectionate and very cordial, of encouragement” towards him.
The other surprise concerns his role. “In Forza Italia there is only one president: Berlusconi”, anticipates the foreign minister, meeting the members of the presidential committee in the early morning before the start of the national council. “I will propose to replace the word president with national secretary in every article of the statute,” he explains.
But in the meantime there are already some maneuvers that show a distrust in the new leader. As the Press explains: “The election took place unanimously, by show of hands, but behind the acclamation there is a component of the party – difficult to quantify – which trusts very little in its leadership”. To describe those within the party who criticize him in the shadows, in an interview with La Stampa Tajani recalls the fable of the wolf and the lamb: “the two animals drink from the same stream, but the first makes specious excuses to attack the second The newly elected secretary of Forza Italia, outside the allegory, says it explicitly: “Whoever is against the party is against himself”. And he asks his detractors to come out into the open: “Declarations without name and surname are worth less than zero. Why don’t they tell me to my face?”
Some details on the anti-Tajani maneuvers in Corriere della Sera. “The young lions branded «area Fascina» — Alessandro Sorte, Stefano Benigni, Tullio Ferrante — move like a phalanx and discuss weaving, delegates to the congresses, of their specific weight in the Tajani front, where they aim to unite the forces of Lombardy and Campania”. While from the wing of Licia Ronzulli “an alternative candidate will emerge, probably a woman, whether it is Ronzulli herself or a charter to fish in civil society; she in any case she will reveal herself in the next few weeks, in any case before the end of the summer”.
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