ROME (AP) – Officials of the political party founded three decades ago by the late former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed Friday to breathe new life into his creation and pursue the battles he loved, including overhauling the justice system that insist against him.
“This is his creature, and this is and always will be the party of Silvio Berlusconi,” said Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is now the top official in the Forza Italia party in his role as party coordinator.
Tajani told reporters that he and other Forza Italia stalwarts would continue to fight Berlusconi’s cherished battles for lower taxes, higher minimum pensions and reforms to the judicial system.
To ensure the longevity of Forza Italia, the party plans to organize rallies to attract new members. Some of the revitalization efforts will focus on what would have been Berlusconi’s 87th birthday on September 29.
Berlusconi died on Monday in a hospital in Milan where he was being treated for chronic leukemia, a disease for which he was hospitalized for weeks earlier this year.
The former three-time prime minister left no designated political heir. Tajani said the party’s symbol, which Berlusconi named after a soccer animation when he founded it in 1994, would retain the billionaire media mogul’s name.
The party, which dominated during its first decade, quickly lost popularity among voters in recent years. He is currently a junior partner in the 8-month-old coalition led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. His government also includes the right-wing League, an anti-immigrant party led by Matteo Salvini.
It is unclear whether Forza Italia can hold on to what remains of its conservative base and lawmakers. Some lawmakers might be tempted to join Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has risen sharply in opinion polls, or to throw themselves into some small centrist groupings in Parliament.
Much of the effort to shore up the Forza party will focus on campaigning for next year’s European Parliament elections. In that legislature, Forza Italia has been a key component of the European People’s Party.
Next week, Forza Italia’s national council will meet to elect an interim president to lead the party until a party congress is held next year.
“Our guidelines are the ones that Berlusconi considered to be priorities,” said Tajani, who pledged to carry forward the party’s mission.
On Thursday evening, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio presented the government’s draft law to reform the justice system, saying it was “destined” for the Cabinet to approve the bill just a day later of Berlusconi’s funeral.
Berlusconi had long criticized what he said were left-wing prosecutors, who brought dozens of criminal cases against him. Only one charge remained for good, a tax fraud conviction stemming from the sale of film rights to Berlusconi’s media empire.
Among the proposed reforms are some that would greatly limit the ability of reporters to subpoena wiretapped conversations that are part of criminal investigations and eliminate the crime of abuse of office by officials.
Opposition leaders fear that the abolition of crime could facilitate corruption arising from the awarding of public works contracts.
