A party created by Berlusconi for Berlusconi: after the billionaire’s death, Forza Italia (FI), an auxiliary force in the ultra-conservative coalition of Giorgia Meloni, risks seeing its decline accelerate.
So much so that the Prime Minister monitors like milk on the fire the situation within Forza Italy (“Forward Italy”) whose deputies and senators, few in number, are nevertheless essential to its majority.
Died Monday at the age of 86 from leukemia, Silvio Berlusconi founded Forza Italia in 1994 when he entered politics, winning the legislative elections and becoming head of government.
The party, at the heart of the game when its leader led the executive (1994-1995, 2011-2006, 2008-2011) has since experienced a slow decline, falling from nearly 30% of the votes in the legislative elections of 2001 to 8% in 2022.
“Forza Italia is Berlusconi”, summarizes for AFP Vera Capperucci, professor of the history of political movements and parties at Luiss University in Rome.
“It’s a party designed by the leader and for the leader. To continue to make it exist, it’s going to be very complicated,” adds French political scientist Marc Lazar, a specialist in Italian politics.
The party has no designated successor and several factions clash.
“It’s a bit in the nature of the dominant characters, he was not the type to think about his succession”, justified his former Minister of Economy Giulio Tremonti.
Faithful among the faithful, Antonio Tajani, co-founder of FI, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Diplomacy, expedites current affairs.
“Forza Italia cannot disappear,” he assured. “We will follow the path he has shown us (…) we will move forward, supporting this government,” he said on the sidelines of an official visit to Washington.
The Tajani card is not unanimous.
“He has no political charisma,” said Franco Pavoncello, president of John Cabot University in Rome. He predicts “a departure [of FI voters] towards other right-wing parties”.
“Forza Italia will shrink sharply,” he warns.
“We can think that a large part of the voters and executives of FI are likely to be attracted by the League or Fratelli d’Italia”, also thinks Marc Lazar.
Giorgia Meloni and his far-right Fratelli d’Italia party could thus “refocus”. “But it’s not obvious because she is faithful to her political roots, the Italian Social Movement [MSI, post-fascist], and there would be internal resistance,” he said.
Other executives and voters of the party among the most “moderate” could be tempted to seek asylum in the center-left and therefore in the opposition, according to him.
Unthinkable, said a Forza Italia official after a party leadership meeting on Tuesday.
“In this phase, no one can afford to leave, it would be absurd,” he said on condition of anonymity to the AGI agency.
And yet, “crises and power struggles will be more and more acute,” says Vera Capperucci. An opinion shared by the major Italian dailies which, like La Repubblica (left), qualify as an “earthquake” the death of Berlusconi for his training.
“The party has never had a normal line of command. The positions of responsibility could appear or disappear in the blink of an eye, simply by the will of Berlusconi”, recalls the daily Il Corriere della Sera.
“Berlusconism without Berlusconi, no one is capable of inventing it,” stresses La Stampa.
There remains a basic question(s): what will his heirs do? FI remains alive thanks to a bank guarantee of 100 million euros subscribed by… Silvio Berlusconi. Will she be maintained by her children? What will his mate do?
According to the peninsula’s media, Silvio’s eldest daughter, Marina Berlusconi, the family pillar of their economic empire, has a good relationship with Giorgia Meloni and no intention of entering politics.
06/16/2023 06:39:34 – Rome (AFP) – © 2023 AFP