Tajani makes a mess of Safe; the EU warns Italy. Guerini: “Embarrassing”. Conte: “They’re suffering from Vannacci psychosis”

The ‘Vannacci bug’ has now infected Tajani too. After Salvini, another has been caught out by Vannacci, suffering from the ‘overtaking syndrome’: Tajani, the Minister of Sincerity. He declared in the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee: “We have requested the SAFE for 14.9 billion”, but was forced to correct himself, clarifying: “We have reserved the SAFE and will draw up our proposal by the end of the year.” At Palazzo Chigi, they read the news agency report: “What does that mean?” In Europe, the Commission spokesperson initially congratulated the government, but once she realised it was a mistake, she asked irritably: “Italy must clarify; there is no time to waste.” Lorenzo Guerini tells Il Foglio: “It’s another episode in an embarrassing spectacle.” Giuseppe Conte dons his white coat and makes the diagnosis: “It’s a clear symptom of Vannacci psychosis.” Rather than the SAFE programme, they’ll be giving us Autan.

Italy? It’s that country where the Foreign Secretary is made to look a fool for uttering a statement of common sense and where his allies hound him: ‘What on earth are you on about?’. Claudio Borghi goes on a rampage like Agamemnon because “Parliament decides”. Tajani declares, in line with Meloni, the PD and those who care about Europe and its defence, that we will request the SAFE fund, and that those expenditures are necessary. He does so in the perfect setting – Parliament, the committee – but he puts it badly. He corrects himself, but it’s not enough. Alarm bells ring at Chigi; Meloni is incredulous. Salvini is the only one laughing it off. Crosetto, another who has always explained the reasons for activating the EU loan, remains perplexed – not because of the content, let’s be clear, but simply because, with Vannacci around, what one thinks can no longer be said, not out loud, and because activating SAFE or other credit lines is a decision for Giorgetti. Parliament’s vote is needed. Military spending is ‘unpopular’ – as Meloni puts it – and we mustn’t scare the Italians, who are already in the thick of an election campaign centred on petrol prices and tough talk. It would all be much simpler if the League did not have to play catch-up with Vannacci, if Meloni did not have to watch this general – who bears no responsibility – showing off about SAFE every day: “Enough of serving the interests of multinationals and international finance; enough of the ‘Draghi agenda’.” Lately, Tajani has also joined in; he sees his Forza Italia almost neck-and-neck with the National Front in the polls and needs to signal his independence from Meloni. We’ve reached the point where Forza Italia’s summer get-together at the clay-pigeon shooting club (as one FI MP confided: “As usual, Stefano Cuzzilla, the chairman of Terna, and Barelli will be there, trying to be funny, and we’ll even have to laugh at their jokes”) is the event of the day.

Let’s hear from Giuseppe Conte, who knows a thing or two about military spending (and doesn’t want to increase it): “There’s a Vannacci psychosis, and the latest victim is Tajani. After settling scores with Salvini, Vannacci has turned his attention to Tajani and Meloni. Vannacci is hurting Meloni; he’s making her suffer. It’s like watching a thief ransacking your home whilst you’re forced to stand by and do nothing. Vannacci is the one thing Meloni can no longer speak of.” In short, it began as a slip of the tongue by Tajani, but within a few hours it laid bare the cracks in the government: defence, justice, electoral law. Lorenzo Guerini, the former minister, who has not stopped calling for the SAFE and explaining to the left – including the M5S – that a common defence is needed, advises Meloni: “Make a decision and put an end to this farce that has even earned us a reprimand from the Committee today.” Enzo Amendola, in a joint session with Peppe Provenzano and Nico Stumpo, issues a joint statement: “Tajani thinks you can book the SAFE just as you’d book a table in Fregene.” Marina Berlusconi is too far away to realise that Tajani is melting like an ice cream in the sun. He’s suffering. Even Benedetto Della Vedova shows Christian compassion: “For once he’d broken a story, he had to correct himself and face the Commission’s reprimand.”

Rumour has it that Tajani hasn’t been responding to anyone for days, not even to Minister Casellati. Over the weekend, in a bid to shore up support in Tuscany and to remind Deborah Bergamini that he is still the secretary, he pushed through the appointment of Chiara Tenerini, a Member of Parliament in her first term, as deputy secretary. Stefania Craxi was chairing the congress, but the appointment was not formalised because Tenerini – like who knows how many other MPs – was behind with her donations to the party. In Campania, he is trying to win back Senator Silvestro, another figure who had switched sides. The only bright spot for Tajani is the amendment on wiretapping, which was declared inadmissible in the Senate before it was rejected by Stefania Craxi and the other Forza Italia senators. Another year to go? They’ve got bogged down in this disastrous electoral law and every day they pull new proposals out of a hat: a two-round system, increasing the number of constituencies… When Donzelli proposed it, Forza Italia retorted: “But it’s you and the PD who’ll stand to gain. What about us?” They say they’re now also squabbling over that ‘vote-stealing’ amendment which fails to take into account the numbers of those falling below three per cent. For Forza Italia, it is “a clearly unconstitutional provision”. It is the same line Tajani is taking with his own people: “It’s the best electoral law, and preferential votes are essential; otherwise, the Court will strike it down”. Calderoli’s bill at least had the grandeur of the Porcellum, whereas this law resembles those weight-loss injections. Tajani’s pained expression is the true map of the constituencies.