The party Forza Italia is Berlusconi’s invention, he was party leader until his death. His successor is supposed to keep the store together – at least for the time being. Because Prime Minister Meloni and Berlusconi’s daughter have their own plans.
Antonio Tajani was in tears after being unanimously elected to succeed Silvio Berlusconi at the helm of Forza Italia at last Saturday’s board meeting in Rome. Berlusconi, founder and sole ruler of the party, had not chosen a political successor until his death on June 12. Tajani, currently deputy prime minister and foreign minister, has long been deputy party leader. So his nomination was obvious.
In his inaugural speech, Tajani said it was not easy to lead a “political movement that was led by Berlusconi for 30 years.” Therefore he will be “only chairman”. “There has only been one president in Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi, and that will always be the case.”
It could be that the 69-year-old Tajani will not hold office for long. Right now, Forza Italia sits at 8 percent in the polls. That’s why Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party and Matteo Salvini’s national-populist Lega, currently also Deputy Prime Minister, could come up with the idea of dividing up the wretched remnants of the once powerful Berlusconi party.
For the family, the party is a losing proposition
Long before Berlusconi’s death, political Italy was wondering what to do with Forza Italia. Not least because the party owes the Berlusconi family 100 million euros. From the family’s point of view, the investment was no longer worthwhile: the weekly newspaper “L’Espresso” reported a few years ago that Berlusconi’s children were urging their father to finally give up the party.
But now Forza Italia should exist at least until after the European elections next year. This is what was reportedly agreed by Meloni and Marina Berlusconi, Berlusconi’s eldest daughter, who is also the head of the family holding company Fininvest. Meloni needs Tajani as a door opener in Brussels, as the newspaper “Il Riformista” writes. She wants to set the course for future cooperation between the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the European People’s Party (EPP). In the EKR, the Fratelli are the second largest group after the Polish ruling party PiS, the EPP is an alliance of European Christian Democrats, the EPP parliamentary group leader is the CSU politician Manfred Weber.
According to reports in the Italian media, the idea has been well received by the conservative wing of the EPP, including Weber, with whom Tajani maintains a close exchange. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is working towards re-election, is said to be interested. Lately she has appeared almost conspicuously often with Meloni. Unlike the Fratelli, Forza Italia is part of the EPP Group. Tajani would be better suited to initiate contact between Meloni and the EPP: he was a member of the European Parliament until October 2022. In Brussels he was Commissioner twice, from 2017 to 2019 he was President of the European Parliament. Altogether, Tajani spent 29 years in the European institutions.
Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen greet each other during the EU summit at the end of June.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/AP)
“A party whose doors are open to all”
Tajani is considered a cautious politician, which should not be confused with weakness. In an interview with the daily Corriere della Sera, he himself made it clear that he doesn’t want to be Forza Italia’s gravedigger and doesn’t want to make the party Fratelli d’Italia’s little brother. Some media suspect that he wants to bring the Christian Democrats, which were dissolved in 1994, back to life. He said: “The point here is not to reestablish the Democrazia Cristiana, but to build a party whose doors, like those of the Democrazia Cristiana, are open to everyone.”
In other words, Tajani wants to offer voters an alternative who don’t like Meloni’s nationalist visions or the even more radical ideas of Lega boss Salvini. In any case, he supports Meloni’s efforts to develop closer ties with the EPP. However, Tajani rejects Salvini’s ambitions of forming a coalition of EPP, EKR and the “Identity and Democracy” faction. In addition to the Lega, the ID faction also includes the AfD and the French Rassemblement National. “The European People’s Party is absolutely incompatible with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and the German AfD,” says Tajani. In this respect, it may not be Tajani who is making himself superfluous as Forza boss, but Salvini, who is being pushed against the wall by his two coalition partners.