“Whoever lost goes home. A party that has reduced its electorate by 60% cannot come back with the same faces. It is essential to change”. The renewal of the PDL can only be guaranteed by those who have no ties and are not part of a circle of senior citizens who are frequented every day and who feel free from negative connotations. We need something new. For example, the mayor of Pavia, the formatter Alessandro Cattaneo. If I didn't run for the primaries myself, I'd vote for him." Giancarlo Galan, from 95 to 2010 Governor of Veneto and then Minister of Culture in the last Berlusconi government, is as forthright and combative as his land. For years he has been claiming the return to the liberal origins of the PDL, that philosophy which led to Berlusconi's victory in '94 and which today, in his opinion of him, has gone astray and with it the voters, disappointed by the betrayal.
Who was wrong? Alfano or Berlusconi?
Both have all lost, each with its degree of guilt and involvement. We actually all lost. And everyone must bring this awareness with them.
And now, how to win back the electorate?
We have betrayed our promises, our program which was inspired by liberal principles. This the electorate does not forgive us.
How to fix it?
Return to our proposals, to our ideals which are liberal ones, to a program inspired by liberal medicines. Then you have to find the right people to implement that agenda, credible and who believe in it, who are first of all the liberals. Right now I see very few around.
For example?
My Economy Minister would be Antonio Martino.
You present yourself in the PDL primaries. What are your proposals?
I want to contaminate the political debate with the liberal virus.
Less state, less laws, less taxes. Selling state holdings, forcing municipalities and provinces to sell their corporate holdings and no longer putting their representatives on boards. In my opinion, we were one step away from being able to do so between 2009 and 2010, when the consensus of the executive was very high. But we missed the opportunity by giving in to the League's blackmail first on pensions and then on the abolition of the Provinces.
Is the secretary Alfano able to relaunch a liberal project of the PDL?
He could do it, but it's not his plan. The leadership team of the party says many good things, but forgets liberal principles.
Also because the internal situation is not the easiest. Berlusconi snubs the primaries and there is talk of his own independent list.
Berlusconi made me the absolute protagonist of politics in my region for 15 years. He made me participate in a political event that will have no equal in the history of our country. For this I will always be loyal to him.
But don't you feel betrayed in relation to the ideals of Forza Italia to which you adhered?
The last Berlusoni government was overwhelmed by an economic crisis that involved all European countries, but in the first two years it was the best executive in republican history. The consensus was unanimous and gigantic, never seen in the history of Italy. If it hadn't been for Berlusconi with his twenty men in each of the Italian regions, Occhetto would have won hands down and Italy would have been very different, certainly worse and certainly with less freedom. After that, I admit that every great man also contains in his greatness the seed of his destruction.
And if Berlusconi made his own independent list, what would he do?
There is no doubt, I will be with him.
Is the PDL still capable of representing the centre-right electorate? New political subjects are born, such as that of the Catholics of the Forum of Todi.
A good traditional politician would say: thank you for the question which gives me the opportunity to explain how the PDL with its answers offers the possibility to the moderate class, still in the majority, to gather around our questions. Since I'm not traditional, I say it will be difficult. How can you say that the PDL is fine when it has lost 60% of its voters, goes to Sicily, gets only 12%, and doesn't bring people to the polls? When it fails to relaunch I'm not saying the enthusiasm of the past, but not even to motivate the electorate to go and vote? We are placed in desperate conditions.
Could the primaries be a solution?
If Alfano and the current establishment were to win it is clear that this would not be possible.
We talk about alliances. How do you see a rapprochement with the League?
It can be an ally. Especially now that Maroni has taken over. Certainly he cannot claim the presidency of Lombardy. A party like Forza Italia was and then the PDL cannot approve, whatever the cost, a destructive concept, that is to say to the North that we are not there.
And Casini's UDC?
Casini tries to implement a policy that should give him great electoral results and instead doesn't knock him out of the 6% whatever he says. Maybe it may have worked in Sicily, but if he presents himself with the left in Veneto he doesn't get even one vote.
Are you afraid of Cricket?
No. Grillo is the measure of the failure of the traditional parties, it should have been understood two years ago. At least the number of parliamentarians could have been reduced, the public funding of parties abolished. Obviously, if politics presents itself with damaged products, people vote for the 5 Star Movement.
Citizens are also distressed by the economic crisis. Public debt is at an all-time high. This fuels anti-politics.
The Monti government has increased the public debt. His recipe was to act, as Tremonti did, only on the tax lever, i.e. more taxes. Instead, I believe that more development is needed. And to make more development we need less taxes and liberalisations. The paradox is that by adding up the two main taxes, the one on physical persons and the one on legal persons, the State manages to bring home only a little more than 20% of the gross domestic product. This indicates that evasion, avoidance and erosion are the problem. Italy, then, is a country of privileges. And we should start reducing them.
Starting from which ones?
A few examples: the advantages for cooperatives, golden pensions, annuities, the Imu on the church's commercial buildings. However, there are two schools at stake: that of the Statilisis, represented by Monti, Tremonti and Visco, who want to tax more in a time of sacrifices. And the liberal one, which starts from a totally different principle. Reduced to pills: let's leave more money in the pockets of Italians and businesses. So I work more, hire more and generate more income on which I am taxed more fairly. But in the end I also produce more development.
