Forza Italia, the post-Berlusconi era is beginning. Tajani will be secretary, not president. Moved, he reads the letter from his children: “Continue to assert his ideas”

“I believe that this political party can no longer have a president, which is why I plan to change the word president in the statute to the word ‘national secretary’. Because there is only one president”, he says Antonio Tajani opening the national council of Forza Italia. The proposal was unanimously approved by the national council.

Thus began the advice of Forza Italia, the first without Silvio Berlusconi, and immediately a five-minute round of applause aimed at the recently deceased leader. The meeting was opened by the foreign minister and national coordinator of the moved party. In the front row the minister Annamaria Berninithe Deputy Speaker of the House Giorgio Mulèthe undersecretary Paul Sistothe president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifaniand group leaders in the Senate and the House Licia Ronzulli and Paolo Barelli.

“It’s not easy to start this day – says Tajani almost in tears – last night I received an affectionate letter from the Berlusconi family which I asked you to read: dearest thanks for the closeness you have given to our father. And for what you will do to carry forward his ideals of freedom and democracy”.

“This letter encourages us”, commented Tajani. His proposal to change the word president in the statute with the word ‘national secretary’, put to the vote by show of hands, was approved unanimously as he reported in the room the group leader in the Senate, Licia Ronzulli.

The national council of Forza Italia then unanimously voted for the document which “entrusts Antonio Tajani and the collegial monocratic governing bodies according to the respective competences provided for by the statute with the task of guiding the movement up to the national congress in a unitary spirit, in continuity with the ideas and principles of our founder”.