“We want to expand our house. With us moderates, with the SVP, with the many popular civic mayors we are working well and we have made great strides.” The leader of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, outlines in an interview with Corriere the next steps of his party which, after having overtaken the League, is now the second majority party and the fourth in Italy: “With Renzi and Calenda it is possible an agreement? It doesn’t seem to me that they really care, from what they say.” In Brussels, in view of the next commission, the European People’s Party of which Forza Italia is a member and Tajani is vice-president, the line is to “build a majority that includes Popular, Liberals and Conservatives”. Without the socialists? “We’ll see, the negotiations start now.”
After the expulsion of the AfD Germans from the Identity and Democracy group, is there room for the latter – including Matteo Salvini’s League – in the next European majority? “Even if Marine Le Pen is different from AfD, the EPP has a profoundly different vision from that of her party on Europe, on the relationship with NATO”. But Tajani does not lock the door on the sovereignists: “We will see how their positions will evolve” he adds, confirming that the Northern League, taken individually and not with its European allies, can enter the perimeter of the majority.
Regarding the next commissioner, “Giorgetti doesn’t seem very interested to me”, he says, while regarding his possible candidacy, with a return to Brussels, the deputy prime minister says he is against: “I have always said it and I repeat it: I prefer to make Italy available to all my international experience, my network of contacts, my experience as a European parliamentarian, then as president of the European Parliament and as commissioner and vice-president of the Commission. I will continue to deal with Europe for Italy as a minister and as deputy secretary of the EPP”.
