“Human and political relationship, he was interested in everything about our country. China worried him a lot, so he wanted to return to military power “
Rome. The racing bicycle with Shimano gearbox delivered to Palazzo Chigi directly from Tokyo, a small pink kimono for the daughter, the conversations on the two most aged countries in the world: how much of Shinzo Abe remains to Matteo Renzi, who as prime minister has worked with he at the G7 in Hiroshima, is the experience of a political relationship but also a human one.
Senator Renzi, you had a long relationship with Shinzo Abe, what do you remember?
“Shinzo Abe was an institution. I had a close relationship with him when I was prime minister, my three years at Palazzo Chigi coincided with the central part of his long term. I remember in particular the 2016 G7 in Japan and the preparation of the 2017 one, in Italy, in Taormina. But the strongest memory is not institutional: I went to her house with my wife Agnese and my daughter Ester, who was 9, and Shinzo Abe gave her a small pink kimono. I have the photo of that moment and I keep looking at it. I also keep the bicycle with the Shimano gear that he gave me in 2014 ».
How did the G7 go in Japan?
“Above all, I am left with the long three-way conversations with Shinzo Abe and Obama. The outgoing American president made me read in advance the speech he was to give in Hiroshima. I too was out but didn’t know it, and so was British Prime Minister David Cameron. In the end, of all of us, Shinzo Abe would have met only Angela Merkel in Taormina ».
When was the last time you heard it?
“Right after the G7 in Taormina, the one I had prepared but which I would not have presided over. At that point, the Prime Minister was Paolo Gentiloni. Shinzo Abe looked for me to congratulate me on the organization anyway. “
What relationship did he have with Italy?
“He was interested in everything about our country. We talked a lot about our nations, about food, about our populations which are the longest-lived in the world. He had the partnership with Italy at heart, especially on defense. He had insisted on allowing Japan to rearm. The Chinese question worried him a lot. One of the times he came to Italy he was also in Florence, I personally took him to visit the Uffizi and I showed him all the domes of the city, from the terrace of Palazzo Vecchio ».
What was your main quality as a politician?
“Tenacity, he was the longest-serving prime minister, ruled eight years in Japan, which is like saying thirty years in Germany.”
Did he get the impression that Abe wanted to get back into politics?
«I don’t know that, I haven’t met him since. I was planning to call him in October when I go to the Suzuka Formula One Gan Premio. But I know that I was very surprised when he decided to leave like this, suddenly: he had given stability to Japan, a country accustomed, like Italy, to frequent changes of majority ».
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