The Forza Italia banquet also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, candidate for the European elections in four out of five constituencies, excluding islands unlike the Aiazzone furniture factory, leader of the blue party and vice-president of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Antonio Tajani is less than a hundred meters from the place of the meeting with Matteo Renzi, in one of those crossroads, including toponymic ones, which are typical of electoral campaigns, in particular that for the European elections which involve a lot of multi-candidate leaders in macro-constituencies. In short, you need a beastly physique. But anyone who takes a look at the gazebo or even simply greets Tajani, stopping in front of the stall, which with the wide angle lens becomes a “crowd bath” in the photographs to be posted on social media, is essentially the result of the Saturday afternoon shuffling in via Venti Settembre, a of the Genoese shopping capitals. For goodness sake, nothing bad, actually. But it’s right to tell things properly.
Renzi welcomed like a star
But it is a few meters away, in the outdoor area of a room in Palazzo Ducale, that instead the public comes en masse, especially for the guest star of the day, the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi, also a candidate everywhere with “United States of Europe”, came to present the two Ligurian candidates on the list Davide Falteri, delegated councilor for attracting businesses to the Genoese council and Raffaella Paita, national coordinator of Italia Viva and before that president of the senators of the Third Pole and president of the Transport commission of Montecitorio. All roles carried out with care and commitment, Lella is a huge nerd. In short, despite the appointment being at 1pm on a splendid sunny day more suited to the beach than politics, there are many who go to listen to Matteo as if it were a secular pilgrimage.
The joke about Toti
And they are not disappointed, because the former Prime Minister has something for everyone. Starting from his government’s former Minister of Justice Andrea Orlando, who later became one of his harshest internal opponents first in the Democratic Party and then in the coalition: “I read that Andrea – Renzi smiles – could be the center-left candidate in the event of early regional elections in Liguria. It’s the time that Toti wins even from house arrest.” Laughter among the audience, where there are several former PD, but also an excellent representation of the civic list of Marco Bucci, the mayor of Genoa also present: there are the councilor Mauro Avvenente, the president of the city council Carmelo Cassibba, the city councilors Arianna Viscogliosi and Angiolo Chicco Veroli, plus the candidate Falteri, all elected in “Vince Genova”, the main municipality of Bucci. In short, a very precise choice of field, with the territory marked, also because Renzi repeats several times that “we will never be on the side of those who want to stop the infrastructures and bring Liguria back into isolation”. At least on this point he is aligned with the other Matteo, Salvini, from whom everything divides him in this electoral campaign: “He says “Less Europe” – attacks the former Prime Minister and leader of Italia viva – while we say the exact opposed by calling for the “United States of Europe”.
Matteo Renzi’s strategy in Europe is very clear: “No to a second commission led by Ursula von der Leyen”, complete with criticism of the excesses, especially those relating to the energy transition which have probably done more damage to Europe than years and years of Eurosceptic campaigns. And, to reinforce the concept of him, Renzi quotes everything and more: “Victor Hugo, Altiero Spinelli, Filippo Turati, Giacomo Matteotti, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi…”, it seems to understand all potential voters of the United States of Europe. In short, Renzi clearly illustrates his political plan: “We are aiming for a Draghi commission, exactly as we did in Italy by bringing down Conte and putting Mario Draghi in Palazzo Chigi.”
And, as always, Comte is among Matteo’s favorite targets: “I feel like there are political leaders who approach foreign policy by saying they want world peace. Today those who respond like this when someone asks their aspiration are essentially Giuseppe Conte and Miss Italia. However, from a political point of view, Miss Italia seems much more prepared to me.”
But there’s something for everyone. For example, Raffaella Paita deals specifically with Action and Carlo Calenda: “Calenda’s list, with which we had created a political project that received two million votes, will not reach the quorum of 4 percent and therefore every vote given to theirs is a vote given to populists and sovereignists. This must be said very clearly, otherwise you risk obtaining the diametrically opposite effect to what you want to achieve with your vote.” Also because Renzi and Paita insist on the fact that, if they are elected, they will really go to Europe, “while Meloni, Tajani, Schlein, Calenda are running for Europe in order not to go to Europe”.
And there is also a passage on symbols: “As the symbol “United States of Europe, our program in the name of the list, becomes known, the polls are growing and I believe we will be the real surprise of these European elections. But for long weeks people responded to polls saying they would vote for Bonino and Renzi, but without immediately connecting the symbol, which is very new.”
Speaking of symbols, Renzi is ironic about those who put him in the name of the party: “Meloni, Calenda, Salvini, then there’s Tajani who puts Berlusconi’s name even though he has disappeared. And I understand it because he knows that he cares more about Berlusconi even if he is dead than Tajani alive.”
Matteo Renzi then takes advantage of the opportunity for a lesson in guaranteeism. Close to him is Francesco Bonifazi, treasurer of Italia Viva, who together with him suffered the investigations into Open which ended in nothing, and Raffaella Paita herself who had to suffer titles such as “Lady flood” in the electoral campaign against Toti: “On that occasion I don’t remember any particular guarantee on his part towards Lella, but it’s one more reason to be different. Also because that aggression would not have been enough to make Raffaella lose the elections, but it was Sergio Cofferati who handed over the Region into the hands of the centre-right, who effectively made the first split in the Democratic Party, after losing the primaries”. At a glance, the conditions do not appear to be there for them to be allies tomorrow.
June 3, 2024
