Sunday

1st Oct 2023

Feature

'Wife, or mistress?' The Salvini-Berlusconi hook-up

  • Silvio Berlusconi (r) and Matteo Salvini (c), with Giorgia Meloni (l) looking on. (Photo: quirinale.it)

Italian politics often produces strange bedfellows. It is the case with Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini: the former is an elderly billionaire former prime minister who calls himself a moderate pro-EU and pro-America liberal.

The latter is the leader of a far-right party that until a few months ago fiercely criticised the European Union. They were allies at the 2018 elections, then Salvini formed a government with the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) -which spoiled the relationship between him and the former prime minister.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • According to Italian media, the Berlusconi family - one of Italy's leading entrepreneurial dynasties - would rather focus on business and stop wasting time on politics (Photo: ec.europa.eu)

But a couple of weeks ago, Salvini started calling for a federation between his League and Berlusconi's Forward Italy [Forza Italia] which continues to lose deputies and senators in the Italian parliament.

For his part, Berlusconi has even proposed a merger between the League and Forward Italy. This is typical of Italian politics: when your party is weak, you try to lean on a strong one (like Salvini's League, which the latest voting intention figures see close to 21 percent, while Forward Italy is below seven percent).

Forward Italy's problem is that Berlusconi is now 84-years old and has the aches and pains of age; many of its MPs no longer seem to have much faith in the party's future.

Also, according to the Italian media, the Berlusconi family, one of Italy's leading entrepreneurial dynasties, would rather focus on business and stop wasting time on politics.

Many Forward Italy Italia MPs did not like Salvini's proposal. Just as many in the League did not appreciate Berlusconi's idea of a single party. "Is Salvini looking for a wife or a mistress?" asks one Forward Italy MP (who does not her name disclosed because she is not allowed to talk about the matter to the media).

"If he wants a wife, then he should build a common house with us, the Italian People's party. It would be the equivalent of Germany's CDU and Spain's PP. In all modern European right-wing forces, the liberal and moderate element coexists with the more nationalist one. A simple federation with the League is pointless".

In any case, Salvini and Berlusconi need each other.

The former is fully aware that he cannot become Italy's next prime minister without the moderate voters, and that he should not alienate Italy's most important media empire.

Berlusconi knows that he needs an heir, and that Forward Italy is on the verge of collapse. "I think Forward Italy has completed its cycle. For better or worse it belongs to recent history but I hardly see it in the future of Italian politics," says Marco Follini, former centrist deputy prime minister.

According to Follini, "Salvini is looking for a positioning that will make it less incoherent for him to find himself in a broad coalition government led by Draghi, which goes as far as the Partito Democratico and the M5S [left]".

Two men, one hard-right woman

And again, Salvini fears competition from Giorgia Meloni, the 'Iron Lady' of the Italian ultra-conservative right, who is also close to 21 percent in polls. "Meloni is stealing some of Salvini's old buzzwords, so it is normal that he chooses a more centrist line than the one he has accustomed us to in the past".

Still, Follini struggles to consider Salvini a centrist. "He is not, and I don't think he wants to be. But he has adjusted some of the more extreme and exaggerated positions of previous years."

For a year now, the Italian media have been reporting that Berlusconi is allegedly helping Giancarlo Giorgetti, Salvini's right-hand man, to steer the League towards the European People's Party.

In the opinion of Marcello Pera, former president of the Italian senate and influential philosopher, "Salvini's League has absorbed a lot of Forward Italy's votes. So I think it is appropriate and necessary for the League to collect not only votes, but also the political heritage of Forward Italy, especially its pièce de résistance linked to liberalism. That's why I think that, if it's done well, a federation between Forward Italy and League could lead to a centre-right party with strong liberal elements".

Gianfranco Pasquino, one of Italy's most respected political scientists and professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe in Bologna, is not entirely sure of Salvini's bona fide.

"I think his proposal of a federation with Berlusconi's Forward Italy is a mistake, but it is a mistake that keeps him on the front pages of the newspapers, in the political debate. Since he doesn't have much to say, he has gained a lot of media attention with this idea. In practice he is getting publicity. Right now, his goal is to stay alive".

For Pasquino, however, Berlusconi really believes in the project of a party that unites the League and Forward Italy.

"He wants to show that he is still the real centre-right leader. It's the swansong of a tired man, who is visibly old but thinks somehow he can still have a grip on Italian politics."

And while Berlusconi and Salvini discuss unions and federations, between leaps and bounds, pragmatic Meloni continues to rise in the polls and her autobiographical book is turning into a bestseller.

Author bio

Valentina Saini is a freelance journalist specialising in Italian social issues and politics, gender issues and the Middle East and North Africa region.

Feature

Beyond Salvini: the rise of Eurosceptic Giorgia Meloni

There is only one woman among Italy's most-powerful politicians: Giorgia Meloni, 43, president of Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), an ultra-conservative party allied with Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Forward Italy).

Feature

Is Giuseppe Conte the last gasp for Italy's 5 Star Movement?

If Giuseppe Conte gives the Five Star Movement a complete revamp, it is likely to destroy the founding ideology and turn it into a mainstream, traditional centrist force, similar to the Democrats on pro-EU, green and equal opportunities policies.

Italy's Five Star Movement on brink of collapse

The Five Star Movment crisis has arisen from the clash between comedian Beppe Grillo, co-founder of the party, and presumed saviour Giuseppe Conte. Grillo, accuses Conte of a power-grab, while Grillo is criticised for acting like an "authoritarian father."

Column

Will Poles vote for the end of democracy?

International media must make clear that these are not fair, democratic elections. The flawed race should be the story at least as much as the race itself.

Opinion

Orbán's 'revenge law' is an Orwellian crackdown on education

On Tuesday, the Hungarian parliament passed a troubling piece of legislation known by its critics as the 'revenge law', which aims to punish and intimidate teachers who dare to defy Viktor Orbán's regime. This law is a brutally oppressive tool.

Latest News

  1. EU women promised new dawn under anti-violence pact
  2. Three steps EU can take to halt Azerbaijan's mafia-style bullying
  3. Punish Belarus too for aiding Putin's Ukraine war
  4. Added-value for Russia diamond ban, as G7 and EU prepare sanctions
  5. EU states to agree on asylum crisis bill, say EU officials
  6. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  7. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  8. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  2. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations
  2. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  3. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  4. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us