Regent Tajani at the first FI press conference after Berlusconi

The national coordinator of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, will hold a press conference today at the party headquarters in Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina. With him will be the group leaders of the Senate and Chamber Licia Ronzulli and Paolo Barelli and the head of the FI delegation to the European Parliament, Fulvio Martusciello. It will be the photo of internal unity, but also of let’s all move forward together in the name of the great leader who disappeared. “As regards the political choices concerning the government, both the parliamentary groups and the ministers, and the party as a whole, will continue to support this government with conviction, playing a constructive, proactive role”, Tajani said yesterday. And in the meantime it was out of the drawers dusted off the statute, never used, of Forza Italia. The bureaucratic process, a term that the old leader deplored, foresees that in the event of a “permanent impediment” of the president, the presidency office takes note of it and immediately convenes the national council of the party (another almost virgin body) for the election of the regent. So say Antonio Tajaniwhich today – in the guise of pro tempore presidentwith everyone’s consent and with the guarantee that a congress will take place – will talk about the new initiatives planned and the continuation of the membership campaign.

As Simone Canttieri writes in the Foglio today, “the blue party is now forced to leave the historic autocracy to try the path of internal democracy, even if it is hetero-directed”. Meloni has made a pact with Marina Berlusconi – with whom she was photographed hand in hand at the funeral of the Cav. – which envisages not launching “any takeover bid on the party and protection of the family businesses (where the partner of the premier Andrea Giambruno also works).” The prime minister “may not welcome parliamentarians and the political class into her party and hope that Matteo Salvini will do the same ‘hoping that Forza Italia will hold’, as an FdI minister explains. However, internal affairs remain skeins to untie. In this sense, there is a half news: Licia Ronzulli and Antonio Tajani are talking. There is an air of agreement, of pact”.

Meanwhile, from the columns of Berlusconi’s Il Giornale, the group leaders of FdI and Lega will take care of reassuring their blue ally. Tommaso Foti, group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the Chamber, says that the government is not at risk. The alliance is solid, “it has held up more or less thirty years. Especially when it was in government it proved to be proactive and determined to implement its programme”, he maintains. “That Giorgia Meloni is a point of reference for center-right voters said it precisely the voters at the latest policies. More than heirs, however, we need to talk about lessons. And the first thing Berlusconi taught us is that the united center-right wins and rules”. Riccardo Molinari, leader of the Lega in Montecitorio, recalls that Berlusconi was the glue of the center-right coalition, a breakfast that we must now try “to keep as it is. Without the buying campaigns aired by some newspapers”. Forza Italia “Perhaps it will need to reorganize internally. They will decide how to do it. But the party founded by Berlusconi remains a fundamental component of the coalition”.

It remains to understand the timing of the congress and what will now be the influence of Marta Fascina, the (until now) powerful non-wife of Berlusconi, a deputy very close to Marina, the eldest daughter of Cav.