The mantra of the day is «Forza Italia is not a barracks». With a corollary: “Criticism is allowed if it is constructive, but not in newspapers.” These are phrases that the national leader Antonio Tajani will repeat several times during a long day in Palermo, which began with a huge crowd at the Politeama and ended with a three-hour meeting behind closed doors together with the Ars deputies.
You know, Tajani, that the party is a pressure cooker. Ready to explode in view of the congress which for now sees Schifani’s private secretary, Marcello Caruso, as the only official candidate, and a reshuffle in the regional council. The first should be held in April, after the referendum, the second (perhaps) in March. And the national leader also knows that the position expressed in the Giornale di Sicilia by MEP Marco Falcone (“Caruso does not have the charisma of a leader, he should step aside to reach an agreement between all the souls of the party”) is not an isolated one. Various deputies think the same way, for example, those who (Tommaso Calderone and Bernadette Grasso first and foremost) yesterday chose to go to Sant’Agata with the vice president of the Chamber Giorgio Mulè instead of to the Politeama theater: «We practically don’t know the secretary of Forza Italia – said Mulè –, he has never even called a meeting. We will elect another with whom it will go better…”.
The pressure on Schifani to make Caruso withdraw and avoid the count is very strong. But he, the coordinator in charge, held the point yesterday: «No one can ask me to take steps backwards. However, everyone is free to express their opinions, perhaps in a slightly more correct manner.” On this issue, Tajani in public gave a blow to the hoop and one to the barrel: «It is the members who vote in the congresses and decide who is the secretary. No one can say ‘get away’ to anyone.” Even if then, behind closed doors, Tajani invited the souls of the party to find an agreement.
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