Tajani’s "antifa" photo in Sant’Anna di Stazzema

They’ll say: the ‘red’ Deputy Prime Minister. In Sant’Anna di Stazzema, the right had never shown its face. At least not until yesterday, when Antonio Tajani accepted the invitation from the Democratic Party mayor, Maurizio Verona. The Forza Italia leader arrived on behalf of the government to commemorate the Nazi-Fascist massacre. And he did so with clear words – the sort that the majority’s allies do not always manage to utter on such occasions. In fact, almost never. “The Sant’Anna massacre is not just one of the many tragedies that every war brings with it. What was committed by the troops of Nazi Germany, who were occupying and oppressing our country, was a deliberate crime, carried out with the help of Italian fascists,” said Tajani, denouncing complicity and those responsible. Some on the right of the government may well have turned up their noses. In fact, few – apart from Forza Italia – mentioned the 1944 massacre. Ignazio La Russa, as President of the Senate, spoke of “barbarism” and an “indelible wound in our history”, without making any specific references. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not speak. Tajani – in his role as a partisan – went much further, however. It was he who brought the ceremony to a close, speaking after the institutional representatives and after Giuseppe Conte, the M5S leader entrusted with delivering the official address. “It is not enough to say ‘never again’; we must take concrete action to ensure that none of this is repeated,” said the Forza Italia Deputy Prime Minister in another passage. He added: “The values on which democratic Italy is founded are the same values on which the War of Liberation was based. A bloody war, which we would not have won had it not been for the decisive intervention of the Allies.” Shortly afterwards, however, Tajani recalled and emphasised the contribution made by Italians to the War of Liberation. “I am thinking first and foremost of the Partisan Brigades of the North, but I am also thinking of the army of the South”, and of all those who set “aside their differences for a common goal”.

In these times of rampant Vannacchism and the constant shift to the right, Tajani has made a move that goes in a completely different direction. But that is not all there is to the Foreign Minister’s mid-August sprint. Another signal – though this time it concerns politics in the strictest sense of the word – was sent by the FI leader two days ago when he launched his campaign against bureaucratic red tape. “A battle” for simplification, aimed at reducing bureaucratic burdens and cross-referencing government databases. Complete with a Forza Italia virtual helpdesk: “Do you have a case to report? Write to Forza Italia.” It is a matter of identity, a liberal one. An issue that Marina Berlusconi has also highlighted on several occasions. It’s just that not everyone within the party immediately grasped what sort of campaign this would be. In his post, Tajani cited Casellati and Zangrillo, referring to the work on cutting red tape and simplification undertaken respectively by the Minister for Institutional Reforms and the Minister for the Public Administration. “We’ve already done a lot,” Tajani wrote. But it isn’t enough – that is the subtext which many within the party have picked up on. Imagine how the two ministers (who are effectively acting ministers) must have felt – they can’t have taken it very well. Rather than Casellati’s measures (which have repealed thousands of pre-republican regulations) and Zangrillo’s digitalisation initiatives – the latter having recently introduced his reform, the ‘Ddl merito’ bill – Tajani prefers his own ‘Farnesina’ model: namely, a dedicated unit for simplification. It is already up and running in his own department; Tajani would like to see it in every ministry, and a draft bill is on the way. He will propose it to the rest of the government, along with other measures, after the summer. In the meantime, however, he will have to deal with discontent within his own party. And this is not the first time.