Is Berlusconi still a Salvinian?
What happens between Berlusconi and Salvini. The Scratches of Damato
Again last Sunday, a stone's throw from the Cenacle of Santa Maria delle Grazie and from the Milanese electoral section in which he had voted, talking about it in a bar in his own way, that is to say free-wheeling, of those that at the time of Palazzo Chigi caused a heart attack in the late spokesman and parliamentarian Paolo Bonaiuti; last Sunday, I was saying, Silvio Berlusconi seemed convinced that Matteo Salvini was the "true" and "only" Italian leader, not only of the center-right. Thus the former prime minister had crowned the Northern League leader a few months earlier in an almost wedding party crowded with friends but deserted by his son Pier Silvio.
Also last Sunday, Berlusconi had defended Salvini even on the most delicate and risky front, the international one, on which his friend had exposed himself with the plan of a trip to Moscow with the assistance of the Russian embassy in Rome, to build the peace of Putin even with Ukraine practically razed to the ground in the part perhaps destined for the Kremlin. A journey that perhaps Berlusconi himself would have personally attempted much earlier if only his friend Putin had answered the phone and had spared the Ukrainian adventure, as he had saved himself many years earlier, thanks to Berlusconi's telephone advice, an adventure analogous in Georgia.
Too bad that the sly Sunday chat with some friends of the Corriere della Sera would then have made a somewhat reckless use flattering underneath the vanity of Berlusconi, that is, opposing him to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. That Putin had not even dreamed of contacting by phone to try to keep him, without even the shield of a personal friendship, on the path of aggression – and what aggression – against Ukraine.
Well, even before the conclusion of this post-electoral week, and even more so than the municipal ballots of June 26, Berlusconi played one of those jokes on his friend Salvini that are usually called "as priests", without regard for the latter. After having generously supported him in his unlikely candidacy for mayor of his Verona, he completed the operation with the affiliation of Flavio Tosi to Forza Italia. Which must not have been the maximum enjoyment for Salvini, given the sensational break that took place at the time between the two in the League, which was penalized as worse could not have happened in Veneto.
Nor must what the neo-forceist Tosi just told the press, burying what could still be left of the Northern League leader's ambition at Palazzo Chigi in the event of an electoral victory by the center-right must have contributed to gilding Salvini's pill, despite the overtaking now unstoppable by Giorgia Meloni.
"International stature, authority in Europe, Atlanticism" – said Tosi – are "the requirements" that make Berlusconi the "only" leader of the center-right. And the Meloni? “From a tactical point of view – replied the former mayor of Verona – it was perfect, coherent and linear. To become the head of the center-right, however, there are supranational issues to be taken into account. Only Berlusconi has that dress there ”, despite having or just to be 85 years old on his shoulders. And Salvini ?, the interviewer insisted mercilessly. And he, even more mercilessly, replied: "He made the first mistake with Papeete, then many others, a series of disordered moves: I am sorry for the League". For him personally nothing: all deserved.
Bad news also arrived from the Press, intended as a newspaper, to Giorgia Meloni, invited in an interview by her friend, sponsor, adviser and whatever else Guido Crosetto to "not scream too much" and to start thinking about the problems that could sooner or later procure her the judiciary, although in last Sunday's referendum the former minister of Berlusconi did not undertake anything against it, indeed trying to give her a hand against two of the five abrogative questions.
The picture of the news in the center-right after the first administrative electoral round, with particular regard to the once-privileged relations between Berlusconi and Salvini, at the origin of great and now also visible suffering in Forza Italia, is completed with what has just happened in the Senate . Where the force supporters, in fact, did not support the assault or the disturbing action conducted by the Northern League, after the referendum flop, against the Cartabia justice reform, already approved by the Chamber. In short, the air for Salvini also seems to have changed in Arcore: good news, perhaps, even for Mario Draghi between one mission and another abroad.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/berlusconi-salvini-2/ on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 05:20:45 +0000.