Thirty years ago, Silvio Berlusconi sent a video of more than nine minutes that was going to change the history of Italy. “Italy is the country I love,” began the legendary recording, lasting more than nine minutes, which entered the country’s mythology as the moment in which the television businessman and owner of Milan announced, in football language, that he was going down to the field of game. These days everyone remembers the idea of ??Mediaset cameraman Roberto Gasparotti, who placed a famous nylon sock over the lens to invent an Instagram filter before social networks were born – in Italy everything always happens first – and rejuvenate the skin of the businessman, who was 56 years old at the time. “To make the image softer, brighter, creating a skin tone effect,” he explained in an interview in La Repubblica.
In the three successive decades, Berlusconi became a central figure in Italian and European politics. He led four governments – and numerous sexual and judicial scandals – and opened the door to the formation of the current one, being the first to legitimize the pacts with the extreme right in Italy until first the League and then the Brothers of Italy gave him the slip. Forza Italia celebrated the 30th anniversary of its birth this Friday with an event with maximum pomp in Rome, an operation of nostalgia that comes when doubts about its future have not yet been dispelled after its founder died.
But there was a notable absence: that of the representatives of the Berlusconi family, who are still the owners of the group today. The party owes a considerable debt of 90 million euros to the Berlusconis, who therefore have the final say on the political future of the right. When Italy buried the magnate with a state funeral for history, many wondered if it would soon be time to also bury his political artifact, for whom Berlusconi never named a clear heir.
Of all the great collaborators who helped Berlusconi found Forza Italia, only Antonio Tajani, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, who took the reins after his death, remains active. He will have to do it officially with a congress at the end of February, which in principle should not pose any problem because he has no rival to challenge him for the position, but no one hides that the currents in the party are varied. His opponents, in fact, point out the absence of the family at this Friday’s celebration. Sources close to the Berlusconi have wanted to leak that the family intends to continue supporting the party, “also out of affection for the political creature to whom Silvio Berlusconi dedicated the last 30 years of his life.”
The support, however, will be conditional on the party continuing to strengthen its accounts, they warn. For the first time in a long time, voters have seen that turbulent times are ahead and have increased donations through tax returns, with which they have raised almost 620,000 euros. “We are demonstrating that the understandable concerns due to the death of President Berlusconi have been refuted. We are in a moment of relaunching the party and we have the responsibility of leading Forza Italia towards a new phase,” indicates Deborah Bergamini, deputy and international secretary of Forza Italia. This is the message that Tajani himself wants to establish, who has been insisting for some time that he is reviving “the same enthusiasm of 1994” after a series of local congresses to try to reorganize the party in these months of transition.
The litmus test will be the European elections, when Forza Italia risks seeing a landslide victory for the Brothers of Italy, especially if Meloni ends up making up her mind and runs as a candidate. Then, a few days before the first anniversary of Berlusconi’s death, the waters could begin to move. Forza Italia has been stuck in the polls for some time with between 7% and 8% of voting intentions. The death of the founder propelled them momentarily, but the space to which they aspire remains the same, the stronghold of moderate right-wing voters who do not recognize themselves in either the Brothers of Italy or the League. Bergamini assures that his goal is to reach 10%, supported by the brand of the European People’s Party. His leader, Manfred Weber, was the first to bless his alliance with Giorgia Meloni. And, while Matteo Salvini’s character may have been uncomfortable for the prime minister, during this time Tajani has wanted to present himself as the reliable partner.
“Forza Italia’s style remains the same even if Berlusconi is no longer there: a non-ideological movement with the aim of bringing civil society to politics and doing so with pragmatism and common sense. We are the most reliable,” promises Bergamini.
