Edoardo Romagnoli
The problems experienced by Riccardo Magi seem to have no end. After the “tesseropoly” case and defeat at Saturday’s meeting, to avoid being left behind in numbers, the issue of venue now arises. But to tell this story we have to start from the beginning. It was precisely March 5, 2025 when Gianfranco Librandi, while at Forza Italia, sent an official email to Più Europa in which he communicated the cancellation of the concession contract for the use of the venue at Via di Santa Caterina da Siena 46 in Rome. But why did Librandi expel Più Europa? A former Roman deputy and apartment owner blames the Magi for the United States’ defeat in European elections. The list he saw together: More Europe, Italia Viva, Italian Socialist Party, European Liberal Democrats, Italian Radicals, L’Italia c’è and Noi di Centro. This was presented in Rome in March 2024 with the aim of exceeding the 4% threshold required to enter the European Parliament. However, it did not go according to expectations, the formation, although large, was only able to get 3.77% of the votes even though in almost all electoral districts there were Emma Bonino and Matteo Renzi who got 78 thousand and 210 thousand votes respectively. Almost all because of the Regional Secretary’s wishes, both of them were not included in the North East constituency. In her place is Antonella Soldo, an expert in advocacy and public policy on drugs and now deputy party secretary alongside Rosario Mariniello. However, the operation failed and +Europa remained outside the European Parliament. Librandi, numbers in hand, opposed the secretary’s choice. Given the results the Renzi-Bonino duo have obtained, in other constituencies, if they were also candidates in the North East, they would have allowed the party to surpass 4%. Among other things, Renzi then tried to convince Magi to let him run in that constituency also considering that, as an all-Italy candidate, if he won he could easily choose another constituency, leaving Soldo alone to enter. At that time Federico Pizzarotti also wanted to be a candidate in the constituency, but after realizing that there was no possibility, he preferred to run with Calenda on the We are Europeans list, winning around 11,600 votes.
At that time Librandi came into conflict with the Magi and decided to expel Più Europa from the via di Santa Caterina da Siena; head office that pays a monthly rent of around 4,500 euros. And by a strange twist of fate, it is now the headquarters of Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva. For a while the party was over, then Magi identified a new headquarters, an apartment at Via Nazionale 172. Exactly where the Saturday service took place. In essence, the address of Più Europa’s headquarters is written in the Statute. Point 4.1 states: «+Europa is based in Rome, via Santa Caterina da Siena 46, and operates mainly in the Italian and European context (…)». So if you want to change the headquarters you have to change the Statutes, but to change the Statutes you need two thirds of the Assembly (about 66 members). Therefore, the party’s plenary meeting is scheduled for Thursday 20 November which will be held to vote on changing headquarters. Magi was confident that no one would oppose him, but at the same time he also knew that he could not count on the 66 members needed to approve the “move”. And given the situation that arose at the February congress, it is hard to think that, despite the fact that this was just a technical matter, members of the internal “minority” would be willing to help by voting in favor. The risk, if there is rejection when voting at a meeting, is that it violates the Statute. At that point, the Guarantee Council will have to intervene, the same thing it did in its efforts to eliminate internal minorities. In short, the deal must be completed entirely domestically.
