The new Forza Italia opens the hunt for the centre and for Catholics. And the young saint Carlo Acutis pops up in the pantheon

Language that has won cannot be changed. The 'new' Forza Italia, modelled in the meetings of leader Antonio Tajani with Silvio Berlusconi's children, Marina and Pier Silvio, is going back to the old ways and will soon make its official debut with the Manifesto della Libertà that will be presented at the Telese Terme kermesse scheduled from 26 to 28 September. Back to the liberal dream with which the Cavaliere bewitched a chunk of the country in 1994 and to the values claimed on several occasions as inalienable, namely liberalism, Euro-Atlanticism and moderation. Which will now be applied to the new challenges, in an attempt to disengage the party from the potentially lethal stranglehold with the 'polite sovereignty' towards which Giorgia Meloni is ferrying Fratelli d'Italia. And to open the doors wide to all disappointed centrists, starting with Catholics.

"The Fi party in Telese Terme scheduled for next weekend will be all about one word, the word 'freedom', because we will present the Manifesto of Freedom, that is, the actualisation and updating of the thought of our founder Silvio Berlusconi, who has guided us from 1994 to today," Tajani explained today from the party's national headquarters, launching the event. 'Since then the values are still the same, but the issues have changed'. Even if the agenda mentioned does not seem so different from the origins: fiscation, security, health, justice (the reform with the separation of careers arrived at the third yes in Parliament galvanises the party). If Fi intends to stand out in the coalition for the defence of rights (the ius scholae is only set aside) and Europeanism without ifs and buts. And if the key reference in the economic field remains the 'social market economy' dear to Berlusconi, anchored in a slogan more popular than ever: 'No one will be left behind'.

But freedom from what and from whom, in a world where order seems disrupted, wars have reached sixty, and the US benchmark is teetering? "The freedom to be cared for, to have a job without having to go abroad, to be able to have children with the necessary sustenance, to have a home," said Gianfranco Librandi. In the pantheon from which Forza Italia wants to draw inspiration, in addition to Berlusconi, Tajani listed obvious figures - the Christian Democrat statesman Alcide De Gasperi, the founding fathers of Europe, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer, the British Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, the carabiniere hero Salvo D'Acquisto who sacrificed himself to save the lives of 22 civilians in the hands of the Nazis - and new landmarks. Like Mogol, who will perform in Telese (the other musical guest will be Neapolitan neo-melodic singer Gigi Finizio), and the young saint Carlo Acutis. 'Positive reference figures,' Tajani emphasised, 'who are an expression of that battle for freedom that is fundamental for us.

Symbols of secular knowledge, like Ulysses, and Catholics speaking to the hearts of young people: in this sweep, the operation reveals itself for what it politically is. A hunt for the centre updated, revisited, not at all hidden, ready to take advantage of the divisions on the left and the discontent among Catholics gravitating in and around the PD. In Rome, Tajani repeated what he had already said on Wednesday from the stage in Ancona: "Forza Italia wants to be a protagonist in the centre-right, but it is also a candidate to gather those voters who in the past voted for the centre-left convinced that there was a centre in the alternative line-up to ours. But, given the choices made by the PD, M5S and Avs, the left is now just the left, it is more and more extreme left and less and less centre-left. To those voters who no longer recognise themselves in the centre-left, I say that there is a centre still capable of guaranteeing you the possibility of fighting for ideas and values in which you believe. That centre is us'.

In the meantime, Fi does not disdain the purchase campaign on the right, as demonstrated by the latest 'theft' of the Campania MP Pino Bicchielli from Noi Moderati, who has increased the number of Azzurri in the Chamber from the initial 44 to 52 (+18%), to the joy of the group leader Paolo Barelli and the sorrow of the number one of Nm, Maurizio Lupi, who fears other snatches. Bicchielli is only the latest in a long series: Nino Minardo, chairman of the Defence Committee, and Davide Bellomo have arrived from the League. Others have resigned from Action, including Enrico Costa, and from the M5S.