The summary of a day in which Forza Italia showed its muscles came early in the morning Antonio Tajani. The national secretary and foreign minister arrived at the Domina Zagarella hotel in Santa Flavia and has set the bar at 20%. This is the medium/long-term national objective of Berlusconi’s heirs.
And it is no coincidence that Tajani revealed his plans by starting the work of the party’s national convention held on the Palermo coast: «We are committed, even more so after the electoral result, which in Sicily at the European elections made Forza Italia largely the first force on the Island, with a result exceeding 23%. We have an important honor on our shoulders. And since Sicily is often a laboratory that anticipates what happens at a national level, this is the result we are aiming for in the next policies.”
To achieve this, Tajani confirms the line anticipated on the eve of the convention: «The project is to be at the center of Italian politics, like the DC at the time of the five-party system. By broadening the boundaries of the center-right and being alternative to the left.” From here comes theopenness to the entry into the orbit of Forza Italia of parties such as Noi per l’Italia (Saverio Romano’s area) and of movements such as the one which now brings together the founder of the Mpa Raffaele Lombardo, the mayor of Palermo Roberto Lagalla and Gianfranco Micciché.
Tajani anticipates to the audience that fills the conference center of the Zagarella hotel to overflowing that the conference season is about to begin: a sort of bottom-up re-foundation that “will lead the base, the members, to elect their own leaders”. It is a path that will start from the lowest level: “We need to bring our message municipality by municipality.”
Tajani speaks in front of all the ministers of Forza Italia, the vice president of the Chamber Giorgio Mulè, the regional coordinator Marcello Caruso and the big Sicilians, primarily Edy Tamajo, thanks to his one hundred and ten thousand preferences. And to this same audience he reiterates the medium/long term line: «Schifani is working well at the Region. I don’t know what he wants to do, but it’s a given that he will be re-nominated even if the elections are three years away.”.
They are warnings to sailors. Which aim to keep the party united despite the fact that the debate on the next Regional elections and on the internal balance is very lively. The invitation is to postpone the internal discussion to the natural venue, the congresses, to the beginning of 2025. And perhaps also for this reason the national secretary prefers to animate another debate, one in which the party is committed to distancing itself from a programmatic point of view from a line too right-wing interpreted by the Northern League and Melonian allies and to try to fill the space in the center between the right of the government and the left of the Democratic Party: «How left-wing am I? I believe in some values, I have a Christian background and this is my identity. A political force like ours cannot have a partial vision of society, but an overall one, taking into account what is happening. First of all comes the person and then the state. The fundamental thing is the centrality of the person.” And also from Santa Flavia he will reiterate the plan to extend the possibility of obtaining citizenship to the children of immigrants who studied in Italy.
The ambition of the Palermo convention is to bring back at least the atmosphere of passion that existed in Berlusconi’s time. Which is recalled through a video which summarizes all his most important days in Sicily, from ’94 to a few years ago. And which ends with the hope of the founder of Forza Italia to build the Bridge over the Strait.
Schifani receives the support of the national leader for his political and administrative line: Tajani embraces the idea of the reform of the Province which provides for the return to direct elections.
While Tamajo, who arrives followed by a larger procession of loyalists than the one who accompanied Tajani, throws a bait to the population of entrepreneurs who still look to Forza Italia: «In Sicily we are trying to make all the opportunities available to the production system , like Zes, European funds and we have 2 billion to spend at my department, which we will make available through calls for research, innovation, the world of craftsmanship and more”.