Italy foreign minister Tajani succeeds Berlusconi as Forza Italia chief

Rome: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was elected on Saturday as leader of Forza Italia, the conservative party founded 29 years ago by billionaire media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi who died last month.

Tajani, 69, who was chosen unanimously by Forza Italia’s national council, faces a hard task reviving the fortunes of a party whose public support had been dwindling for years even before Berlusconi’s death.

Tajani has spent much of his career outside Italy, serving as a European Commissioner in Brussels and as president of the European Parliament. He lacks his predecessor’s charisma and is not among Italy’s more popular politicians.

“I am receiving an almost impossible inheritance,” he told the Rome gathering of Forza Italia’s national, European and local representatives.

“It’s not easy to lead a political movement that has had Silvio Berlusconi as its leader for almost 30 years,” he said, speaking on a stage in front of a huge image of Berlusconi.

Forza Italia is the junior partner among the three main parties in Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government, behind the premier’s own Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League.

“We want to be the centre of the centre-right,” said Tajani, who has served as foreign minister since the government took office in October last year.

“We are different from our allies and we don’t intend to give up our identity.”

Recent polls put Forza Italia’s support at about 7%, behind the League on around 10% and Brothers of Italy close to 30%.

After beginning his political activity in a tiny monarchist movement in the 1980s, Tajani joined Forza Italia when it was founded in 1994 and was Berlusconi’s spokesman in his first government that year.