Berlusconi’s latest taunt, which his Forza Italia party initially tried to deny, was confirmed in an audio recording released late Tuesday by Italian news agency La Presse. “I have reconnected with President Putin – a little, a lot,” the three-time former prime minister was heard to say in comments to Forza Italia lawmakers. “He sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a very sweet letter for my birthday. I responded with 20 bottles of Lambrusco [a sparkling Italian red wine] and a similar sweet letter.’ Berlusconi went on to repeat his earlier description of the Russian leader as a misunderstood “man of peace”. Among Putin’s “five true friends, I’m number one,” he added with his usual swagger. As Berlusconi’s comments spread, his office immediately issued a clumsy denial, claiming he had “told lawmakers an old story about an incident that happened years ago.” But the remarks soon appeared to refer to his 86th birthday on September 29, four days after the right-wing coalition led by his ally Giorgia Meloni won the most votes in Italy’s general election. Berlusconi’s comments immediately made headlines, throwing into disarray Meloni’s efforts to divide cabinet positions among her allies. Forza Italia, now a junior partner in a coalition dominated by Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy, is gunning for the foreign ministry, among other key cabinet posts. “Meloni hostage to pro-Russians,” headlined Wednesday’s La Repubblica newspaper, writing that the incident “undermined the credibility” of the government she is trying to form, “damaging Italy’s relationship with Washington.” “Berlusconi is back to doing what he does best, the showman,” added La Stampa editor-in-chief Massimo Giannini, describing the billionaire media mogul as a “Shakespearean fool wreaking havoc on Meloni’s emerging court.”
Melon’s difficult allies
Meloni, Italy’s likely next leader, was said to be shocked and delighted at the latest gaffe by the man long known as Cavaliere (the Knight), who slipped out of parliament through a back door on Tuesday night to avoid Press. As Giannini said, Berlusconi’s latest rant “shattered the already fragile pro-NATO and pro-Europhile balances that the leader of the Brothers of Italy was struggling to guarantee.” Breaking a day-long silence, Meloni issued a statement late Wednesday, insisting she will lead a government with a clear foreign policy. “Italy, with its head held high, is part of Europe and the Atlantic alliance,” he said. “Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone cannot be a member of the government, at the price of not having a government.” Meloni’s own far-right credentials and long history of Eurosceptic unrest have raised concerns in some European capitals. But he has strongly supported NATO and Ukraine in the war, offering strong support for EU sanctions on Russia.
“Mother, Italian, Christian”: Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s far-right leader on the brink of power But its allies’ past closeness to the Kremlin worries Western leaders. Long a junior partner in center-right coalitions, Giorgia Meloni has moved from allies and rivals to become Italy’s dominant political force. © Roberto Monaldo, La Presse via AP
Berlusconi has a long, friendly history with Putin, whom he entertained at his villa in Sardinia almost two decades ago. He even visited Crimea with the Russian leader in 2014 after Moscow annexed the peninsula from Ukraine. That same year, Meloni’s other key ally, Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigration Lega party, was photographed in Moscow wearing a Putin T-shirt – a stunt he repeated in the European Parliament months later. Salvini’s party colleague Lorenzo Fontana, who was elected Speaker of the lower house of parliament last week, further embarrassed Meloni on Tuesday by describing EU sanctions against Russia as a “boomerang” for the Italian economy – causing a rapid rebuke from the European Commission in Brussels, which also noted that the sanctions prohibit imports “as well as gifts” of Russian vodka. “This is not folklore or jokes,” tweeted Enrico Letta, the head of the center-left Democratic Party, accusing Italy’s new right-wing majority of “increasing ambiguity” toward Russia. “Who is harming Italy abroad?” Leta asked. “The opposition… (or) the Speaker of the House of Commons delegitimizing EU sanctions against Russia? Berlusconi reconnecting with the invader of Ukraine?’
Berlusconi’s wounded pride
This is not the first time Berlusconi has touted his friendship with Putin and seemingly defended his actions in Ukraine. Late in the campaign, he appeared to justify Russia’s invasion by claiming that Putin was simply trying to put “decent people” in power in Kyiv.
His latest comments came just 24 hours after he and Meloni tried to put days of anger behind them in a private meeting, which both parties said was held in a spirit of “the utmost cordiality and cooperation.”
Tensions had flared last week over the allocation of cabinet posts, most spectacularly when Berlusconi scrawled a list of derogatory epithets for Meloni on a notebook in front of photographers in the Italian Senate, calling her “arrogant, authoritarian, arrogant , offensive”.
After images of the notes went viral, Meloni responded that Berlusconi had forgotten one: “That I am not capable of blackmail.”
The exchange followed the election of a new president of the Senate, Italy’s second-highest-ranking official, in which Meloni beat the 86-year-old former prime minister to secure the appointment of Italy’s stalwart Brother Ignacio La Russa, without handing over the posts to Berlusconi which he demanded in the cabinet. RETURN.
The tour highlighted a generational power shift within Italy’s right that an exasperated Berlusconi appears reluctant to concede after three decades of dominating the field. He added fuel to the fire in separate statements on Tuesday, with a patronizing and menacing joke: “I have no problem with Meloni. She is friends with my son and her partner works for Mediaset [Berlusconi’s television company].”
Cavaliere’s reluctance to give way to a female leader who served as a junior minister in his last cabinet – and is 41 years his junior – is a “strategic problem” for Meloni, La Repubblica editor-in-chief Maurizio Molinari said. noting that such conflicts are possible. it will be repeated in the coming weeks and months – and not just in foreign policy.
Molinari added: “What the last 48 hours are telling us is that Silvio Berlusconi is simply unwilling to hand over the leadership of the right to Giorgia Meloni.”
