Present and absent at the funeral of Silvio Berlusconi
At the funeral of Silvio Berlusconi only one political leader was missing, the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte: in certain appointments with history, not being there risks leaving a mark on subsequent political arrangements as well. Paola Sacchi's note
The Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, with his face marked by emotion, the premier Giorgia Meloni, with the presidents of the Chamber and the Senate, Lorenzo Fontana and Ignazio La Russa, the blue coordinator, deputy prime minister, foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, with the tears in his eyes, Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure-Transport with shining eyes too. Also present in a wheelchair, with his ailments, is his historic ally, Umberto Bossi: “He was like a brother to me. Silvio's principles: the good, the beautiful, the right". The Berlusconi family with Marta Fascina in tears. All the staff of companies and Forza Italia. The friends of a lifetime, Gianni Letta, Fedele Confalonieri. The pain mask of Professor Alberto Zangrillo, his doctor who tried to save him to the end. The secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein. Matteo Renzi taking communion. There is also Carlo Calenda. Silvio Berlusconi, still opposed even after his death by a minority of the extremist left, gathers all of political Italy around his coffin in the Milan cathedral. Starting with its highest institution, the President of the Republic.
The great communicator and great mediator, the man who founded the bipolarity around which Italy was divided with the centre-right , sends one of his last political messages, as a true statesman, bringing together all the representatives of the Village. Not because bipolarism should no longer exist, but because the confrontation takes place in a common framework of confrontation, even tough, but civil from the normal democratic dialectic of the West.
Only one is missing, who is also a former prime minister, the pentastellato leader, Giuseppe Conte. In certain appointments with history, not being there risks leaving a mark on subsequent political arrangements as well. And the sign runs negatively through that "broad field" that the left or center-left still intend to build. Berlusconi's disappearance is a blow to Forza Italia and the centre-right, which however is the true political heir of the former four-time prime minister as a united coalition. Tajani announces: "Now we will go forward, dear President, with the courage of your ideas and the strength of your teachings".
But it is on the left that the Cav's death turns the spotlight above all. Conte's absence further highlights the fraying of a left more than ever in search of the "square". Now that the "enemy" of all time against which it was historically united is no longer there.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/funerali-berlusconi-assenza-conte/ on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 05:53:05 +0000.