From Forza Italia to the government. The signals from Berlusconi and Tajani to Giorgia Meloni

The maneuver arrives today in the Senate. It will close its process by December 31 and will be the first goal of the Meloni government, which includes the Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza Italia. The centre-right executive that some have renamed right-centre. And in that mangled name, squeezed between the two sovereign parties, are the leaders of FI and their orientation with the repeatedly underlined pro-European spirit, useful for maintaining dialogue between Italy and the European institutions. In function of this, Antonio Tajani and Silvio Berlusconi, national coordinator and president of Forza Italia, send signals to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; with a dual purpose: to carry on one’s own battles and not to lose the identity of the party.

The one uses moderation and translates it into the word “flexibility”. Thus, in fact, Foreign Minister Tajani speaks to Press: “You have to show yourself flexible. If we rightly ask for flexibility from the European Commission, for example, on the Pnrr, then we have to show ourselves to be collaborative and dialoguing if requests come from Brussels”. Between the lines, despite the fact that the matter of dialogue was the lack of a rule on the Pos, we read the position regarding the month, on which Giorgia Meloni has opened to ratification, but closed – at least for now – to the hypothesis that Italy accedes to it. It is one of the government’s reversals, but several open questions still remain: among these, the request from the Polish president Mateusz Morawiecki to abandon the requirement of unanimity in the European Parliament. And Meloni, her friend and ally of him, what position will she have? “We haven’t discussed it yet. To get there you have to go through a reform of the treaties, a long process”, is Tajani’s diplomatic response.

The other front on which Forza Italia will have to remain steadfast is entirely Italian, and concerns its majority. It involves pensions, the so-called “flat tax”, and two other knots that we will have to start unraveling: the bureaucracy, with the procurement code, and the justice reform. “We must get used to working better together,” says Berlusconi to Republic referring to the Budget law, “We have taken a first step. But within the legislature the commitment remains to bring the minimum pensions to a thousand euros for everyone and to the total tax exemption and decontribution of the new permanent contracts for young people” he continues.

Now, however, it’s time for Justice: “Minister Nordio has given indications based on a solid culture of guarantees, which is also ours”, Berlusconi affirms. Europeanism, guaranteeism. The leader of Forza Italia wants to highlight his values. So he goes back to talking about an Italian republican party – on the model of the United States -, as well as bipolarism (“Born in Italy with our descent into the field in 1994”). “It’s not a recent idea” declares to Republicand despite this he outlines it: “It would be a container in which different stories and currents of thought, all essential, must find space. In our case, a fundamental role must be played by the liberal, Christian, guarantor, pro-European and Atlantic political culture, truly essential for a centre-right government. That culture that Forza Italia represents and which in any case is destined to be the protagonist of the future”.

For the premier it is a clear request for dialogue, and a warning.