Renzi reform advisor: collaboration with Tony Blair and remuneration

From leading the Pd at the time when he was premier, with an unmatched record of almost 41% in the 2014 European elections, to the court of Tony Blair. Passing through his exit from the Pd and the not-so-successful founding of Italia Viva and the decisive role in bringing the Conte 2 into being (2019) and then dropping it to bring Mario Draghi to Palazzo Chigi (2022). You know, Matteo Renzi has a thousand lives. And in the one before the flop at the European elections on 9 June, when the list United States of Europe, put together with the radicals of More Europe failed to pass the 4% barrier, he would have gladly accepted some EU office in the Macron-Renew Europe quota. But it went the way it did. And so the former premier gladly accepts another international assignment: that of strategic advisor to the Tony Blair Institute.

"I am delighted to welcome Matteo Renzi to the Institute as a strategic advisor," announced former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has always been on good terms with Renzi. "Matteo will be a valuable addition to our team of leaders who provide high-level strategic advice and insight, helping political leaders around the world to effect change for their countries. "I am honoured to join TBI," replied Renzi. "Tony Blair was an inspiration to me during my years in government and I look forward to working to ensure that the leaders of today and tomorrow have the same visionary and reformist example.

But what does Renzi's new job consist of? Because it will be a real job and not voluntary work: there is a contract, although it has not yet been made public how much the 'salary' amounts to. "The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change supports political leaders and governments in building open, inclusive and prosperous societies in a globalised world," the TBI statement continues. Renzi, Italy's youngest ever prime minister, has a track record of successes ranging from the early and comprehensive adoption of digital technology to the introduction of radical reforms in public services."

And here is Renzi's CV: 'He was prime minister from February 2014 to December 2016. He led the Democratic Party from 2013 to 2018, with a brief interruption in 2017. In 2019 he founded his own centrist party, Italia Viva. In 2009, Renzi became mayor of Florence. His policies included installing 500 wi-fi access points, halving the number of city councillors and cutting excess public sector spending, reducing waiting lists for kindergartens by 90 per cent and investing in school construction and welfare. Renzi has long been an advocate of digitisation as a central part of domestic reforms in Italy. During his tenure as prime minister, the introduction of digital ID in major public services was seen by Renzi as a way to create 'a faster, more agile and less bureaucratic Italy'. In 2014, Renzi introduced the reform of the Public Administration or 'Madia reform' as a broad set of measures to modernise public administration in Italy. The reforms included a comprehensive digitisation and e-government component, in which digital ID was a central pillar'.

Digitisation and the Pa, then, the subjects in which Renzi is considered specialised by the prestigious institute across the Channel, which has also boarded the former Finnish premier Sanna Marin . But will the former premier be able to continue doing her first job, which is that of a senator? Of course he will, they answer from his staff: 'We would like to specify, for the avoidance of any misunderstanding, that the activity is compatible with that of parliamentarian and does not imply any abandonment of politics'. And will the other consultancies, including those discussed with Saudi Arabia, be allowed to continue? There are no preclusions, we are told. And so Renzi will increase his already substantial income: in 2023 he declared a taxable income of 3.217 million euros, making him the second richest parliamentarian after Antonio Angelucci .