"There will be no break between Forza Italia and the EPP"
.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani
told
the Italian press on the sidelines of the Munich Conference.
Tajani said he had spoken to European People's Party president Manfred Weber and had had a clarification.
"Berlusconi and Forza Italia are the same thing"
the foreign minister specified, answering a question from Italian journalists on Silvio Berlusconi's utterances on Ukraine.
"Forza Italia has always been with NATO and for supporting Ukraine," he added.
From threats to facts.
Until the open clash with Forza Italia.
Five days after Silvio Berlusconi's words on Ukraine (which the European People's Party had already rejected) the rift becomes blatant and blows up the EPP convention in Naples.
It is in one of the cities most loved by the Knight that the event was being organized - from 6 to 9 June at the Royal Palace, Ursula von der Leyen was also among the guests - and it is there that Manfred Weber opens the battle
.
With a tweet, the leader of the popular party announces that the Neapolitan days have been cancelled.
And he is also explicit about why: behind the 'boycott' there are precisely the anti-Kiev statements made by Cav on Sunday, as he left the polling station ("as prime minister I would never have gone to speak to Zelensky").
But with the nuclear risk looming, Berlusconi is not going to pass for a 'warmonger' once again.
And in the evening he reversed the accusations: "instead of criticizing me, they immediately open a table to achieve peace. This is a duty for a party like the EPP", he wrote on Facebook.
So he relaunches and asks to put the issue on the agenda, because "it can no longer be postponed".
It is a powerful slap from Weber, who thus tries to govern a part of him, especially the Eastern European component, which has long been asking the German for more firmness towards Berlusconi
.
And the first opportunity to reiterate the line on the war seems to be the June event.
In Piazza Plebiscito, together with the president of the European Commission, 200 MEPs of the EPP, 5 prime ministers of popular-led countries, the president of the Eurochamber, Roberta Metsola and even Bill Gates were invited.
In addition to the almost landlord, alias Berlusconi who let it slip in Naples last May that sending weapons to Kiev "means being co-belligerents" and that "if we were to send them, it would be better not to advertise them so much".
Berlusconi's words: 'If I were prime minister I would never have met Zelensky'
And so on until last Sunday's words, which reawakened the tensions (never extinguished) between the popular and prompted the most pro-Ukrainian to ask Weber for an unequivocal move such as the halt to the Italian summit.
Doubly linked to the position on the war, which Weber reiterates: "Support for Ukraine is not optional".
The German, however, goes further, borders on the internal divisions of FI and, in his j'accuse, openly saves only the number two of the party.
"Antonio Tajani and FI have our support",
it is the only distinction it makes.
It's too much for Berlusconi.
An icy silence falls around Arcore for a while that barely hides the anger, as interpreted by those closest to the former prime minister.
In the afternoon, Tajani is the first to expose himself.
The foreign minister remains on the defensive and repeats an old mantra:
"Berlusconi is Forza Italia. Forza Italia is Berlusconi".
But he adds: "I do not agree with the decision to postpone the meeting in Naples. Also because Berlusconi and Fi have always voted like the EPP on Ukraine, as evidenced by the acts of the EPP".
His loyalists go on the counterattack.
Weber cannot be forgiven for trying to divide them, sowing discord (particularly in the passage on Tajani), is the accusation.
Manfred Weber
"Within Forza Italia there is only one line and we reject any clumsy attempt to divide us", is the premise of the group leaders
Licia Ronzulli and Alessandro Cattaneo
in a note.
Then the lunge on Weber: "We hope, first of all as Italians, the clarification of the misunderstanding and a repentance from Weber, to whom we ask not to intervene again".
They denounce that the Neapolitan 'Study days' (this is the official name of the event) "are an excuse".
And that rather than doing "an injustice not only to a party but to Italy", "the will to enter the internal life of a party, imposing or excluding its leaders. This is unacceptable", they sentence.
