Forza Italia faces Campania congress clash as critics call it a farce

Forza Italia’s Campania congress is approaching under a cloud of internal conflict, with critics warning that the event could become “a real farce” and further tear the party apart.

The regional congress is scheduled for next Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the Hotel Continental in Naples. Fulvio Martusciello, currently the only candidate, projects confidence, but opposition to the procedures and to his continued leadership has grown after months of internal tensions.

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A real farce

The criticism came in a document issued by MPs Pino Bicchielli and Annarita Patriarca, Senator Raffaele De Rosa and regional councillor Livio Petitto. They said an event intended to encourage participation and political debate had instead become a source of confusion, divisions and disputes across the provinces. “A congress must unite through debate, allow everyone to participate on equal terms and offer the party a political outlook,” they wrote. They argued that it should not be reduced to a contest between blocs of membership cards while uncertainty remains over the actual membership and voting base.

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A congress must unite through debate, allow everyone to participate on equal terms and offer the party a political outlook.

Martusciello’s supporters present a sharply different picture. Their calculations are based on about 12,000 members, with each provincial candidacy requiring support from at least 15% of the congress electorate. They say Martusciello has more than 85% backing in three provinces, leaving little room for a late challenger. Guido Milanese, the party’s local-government coordinator, said 490 Campania institutional representatives support him, including all municipal councillors in provincial capitals, all provincial councillors and all mayors.

The four critics reject those figures. “Every day for a month, we have read different numbers: members, signatures, administrators and young people,” they said, describing the repeated figures as sometimes closer to lottery numbers than real, verifiable data. The dispute over the numbers has become the central test of the congress’s legitimacy.

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Every day for a month, we have read different numbers: members, signatures, administrators and young people.