Antonio Tajani, deputy premier,
foreign minister and president of three-time ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, on Sunday
denied press reports that the European People's Party (EPP), to
which FI belongs, had asked Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party to remove its neofascist tricolor
flame symbol from its logo in order to facilitate a possible
alliance between the EPP and Meloni's European Conservatives and
Reformists (ECR) group for next year's elections to the European
Parliament.
"After the European elections in 2024, I'm thinking of an
alliance between the Popular Party, Conservatives and Liberals.
"A path that can be repeated. A negotiation on the symbol is out
of the realm of reality. No one has asked anyone for anything, I
can absolutely deny it," said FI no 2 Tajani at business daily
Il Sole 24 Ore's Festival dell'Economia in Trento, commenting on
rumours about the alleged request to Fdi to remove the Flame,
which is seen as representing that on top of Mussolini's tomb,
from the symbol in order to join the European alliance.
The FdI's logo features the Tricolour Flame first used by the
postwar neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) party, formed
by members of Mussolini's movement.
Meloni says the Italian right has "handed Fascism over to
history" and has condemned its suspension of democracy and the
"ignominious" racial laws.
She sees FdI as akin to Britain's Tories and the US Republican
Party.
Meloni restored the 'Fiamma' to the logo when she formed FdI in
2012, after a previous rightwing post-fascist party had removed
it.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
