Tajani: “Agreements not respected, I expect an apology. International law must be observed”

Antonio Tajani has just returned from a mission in Argentina, and he is already busy on three fronts. As Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of Forza Italia he has to intervene on the Government, the turbulent international scenario and the fiscal manoeuvre.

Let's start with the Middle East: how do you judge Israel's attack on Unifil?

"We cannot accept what has happened to the Unifil posts in southern Lebanon; it is unacceptable that Unifil bases be accidentally or even worse intentionally hit. For the past few weeks, the Italian Government had been warning the Israeli Government of this danger: I myself have called my Israeli colleague Israel Katz three times in the past few days. And then, given our very close relationship over the years, I have also called President Herzog twice."

What did you tell him?

"Israel can defend itself militarily, it has every right to respond to the barbaric assault of 7 October. However, its operations must at all times respect international law, civilians and in this case the UN contingents. They have always answered me that they fully understood our messages, and that they would pass on our instructions to those on the ground."

The situation does not seem to have cleared up, Crosetto was very harsh. What happens now?

"Unfortunately, the results are different from what we were assured. I hope that Israel will now apologise and condemn what happened. The fact that the Israeli embassy has announced the opening of an investigation is positive."

Why was Israel's ambassador summoned by the Minister of Defence, instead of being summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

"There was no formal 'summons', which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of. Minister Crosetto has received the Israeli ambassador to rightfully express Italy's disappointment at what happened, a disappointment that should be relayed to his Government."

Does the future of the Unifil mission change?

"Our Italian citizens are being true peacekeepers. We are following them closely, as if they were our children, asking for minute by minute updates. We are doing everything in our power to guarantee their safety, but the mission must continue to secure peace and prevent any escalation of the situation."

Meanwhile, tensions in Italy over the manoeuvre continue. It seems that Minister Giorgetti did not like your stance against new taxes on property or extra-profits, and defined it 'populist'.

"I don't care about rumoured jokes, gossip, extrapolated phrases. I have a very good relationship with Giorgetti. FI's priorities are to lower the tax rates, continuing to work first of all on the tax wedge, so that companies may hire and to obtain higher wages for workers. Our goal is to lower the Irpef tax from 35% to 33% for those with a taxable income up to 60,000 euro."

Where will you get the money? Giorgetti is considering cadastral revaluations for properties that have benefited from the Superbonus.

"I believe that he has been misinterpreted, we have no intention of doing cadastral revaluations as the Left wanted to do, let alone declared or hidden forms of property tax. The law already stipulates that if one increases the number of rooms, merges property units, or carries out work that increases the value of the property by more than 15%, the property will be upgraded to a higher cadastral class or there will be a revaluation of cadastral revenues. No taxation should be applied to what has already been found and declared."

So property tax will not undergo any change?

"We need to carry out controls and tax illegal activities - including those in the real estate sector, such as the 'ghost' houses, which are many - or anyone who declares falsehoods. Therefore, applying the laws and fighting evasion is excellent, but no new taxes will be introduced.

Not even to banks?

"The 'extra profits' formula is not the only way to get contributions. You can intervene on liquidity, and in any case, there must be dialogue and cooperation with banks and insurance companies. Which is what we are doing, without punitive or vindictive intentions. If anything, it is time to tax the Internet giants, and to finally lower rates at European level."

Indeed, but in the meantime, where is the money for the manoeuvre?

"We are working on an effective spending review, on the reduction of the 625 ineffective tax allowances and deductions, on the resources of the composition with creditors, on the collection of ascertained evasion, on the reduction of public holdings, and on the sale of part of the public real estate assets."

Nevertheless, FI seems to have become the critical soul of the majority.

"No, we are and remain the central soul of the centre-right party. We are liberals, guarantors, pro-Europeans. This is our nature, our task. We remain loyal to and allied with the centre-right."

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