Tax-free zone, rights: Tajani tries to play the part of Occhiuto to protect himself

Antonio Tajani has gathered his team at the San Lorenzo in Lucina headquarters to draw up Forza Italia’s ‘priorities’ for the forthcoming Budget Bill. This meeting serves as a prelude to the coalition summit to be held today at Palazzo Chigi with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her allies, during which the initial proposals put forward will begin to be whittled down. In fact, the ‘Azzurri’ had already discussed the agenda in Milan, at the event ‘L’ottimismo della volontà’, organised under the auspices of the Deputy Prime Minister himself and the Senate group leader Stefania Craxi. It was there that Tajani championed the ‘no tax area’ for the under-35s, one of the proposals on which the President of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, has been strongly insisting in recent weeks. He also reiterated this point during the Festa del Foglio in Florence. Among the other priorities identified by Forza Italia supporters are the abolition of road tax on a first car (extending the measure already adopted a month ago) and the reduction of personal income tax (IRPEF) to 33 per cent for incomes up to 60,000 euros.

These are perhaps not random signals. Because, again in Milan, Tajani has returned to ‘reprimand’ the internal minority, saying that ‘I set the party line and the line does not change. For those who do not agree, there are party conferences’. It was a further warning to the ‘deserters’ (another term coined by Tajani) who, according to the secretary, do nothing but spread discontent about him and the party’s leadership. And yet, at the same time, Tajani – whilst championing measures that had been put forward by the wing led by Zangrillo, Occhiuto and Mulè – was keen to add, again during the Milan event, that Forza Italia remains “the party of rights”. This was another nod to those – first and foremost the governor of Calabria – who in recent weeks have called for a party that is less timid on issues such as same-sex marriage, end-of-life care and citizenship. So much so that FI is expected to bring these issues to the coalition table, where the next government programme is to be drawn up. That is, provided this meeting does not become yet another opportunity to emphasise the secretary’s primacy, given that in recent hours the idea has gained ground of organising internal consultations specifically to define the policy agenda ahead of the election. A way, the discontented murmur, to “circumvent the national congress” which the Berlusconis have already said they do not want before the election. These are considerations gaining traction during particularly strained days in relations with Matteo Salvini’s Lega, with whom the rift is growing ever wider: from the choice of candidate in Milan (Tajani has already fielded Undersecretary Matteo Perego of Cremnago) to the budget, with the Azzurri once again ruling out any possibility of taxes on windfall profits, on banks and beyond. It is almost as if the ‘noise from the enemies’ might at least unite a party that is becoming increasingly fractured from within. Just yesterday, in fact, Minister Zangrillo once again insisted on the need for ‘shared leadership’. Although, when it came to praise for Renzi, he seemed to distance himself from Occhiuto: ‘It’s very different from when he was at 40 per cent’.