Tonight's winner in Italy is Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy who has prevailed at the polls according to exit polls. But by herself, she could not rule. In the far-right party they are going to be very aware of the result of their right-wing coalition partners, mainly Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, a solid alliance despite their differences with the one that already governs most of the regions from the country. The liberals from Noi con l'Italia also concur with them, although they are very minority.
It is clearly a marriage of convenience, they know they need each other and take advantage of it, but the personal relationship between them is not good. With Salvini, they are allies and rivals, they compete for the right-wing vote, and personally they cannot stand each other. The veteran Berlusconi will always view her with condescension, like that 31-year-old girl whom she made Minister of Youth at the suggestion of Gianfranco Fini, the then leader of the National Alliance. She is now the junior partner in an alliance she once held sway.
They have not made it easy for him in this campaign in which Meloni has tried to convince Europe that he is not going to be Moscow's point of entry into Italy. Salvini, a longtime admirer of Putin, called for withdrawing economic sanctions on Russia because he believes they are not helpful. Berlusconi, who used to present the Russian president as his "little brother", escaped a justification for the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, who, in his opinion, was "pushed" by his ministers. to replace the Zelensky government with “decent people”.
It is to be expected, therefore, that there are some discrepancies between them, although they have always proven to be very practical. Everything will depend on the final result and the influence they may have with the translation of the votes in parliamentary representation. Everything points to the fact that, if they manage to form a government, Salvini will be the most uncomfortable: he still has to digest the precipitous drop in ultra support since he won the 2019 European elections with 34% of the vote. He aspires to be Minister of the Interior and regain consensus with his media battles against NGOs. It would not be surprising if the League were very upset with his campaign.
For Berlusconi, who turns 86 this week and his health has been seriously affected by the complications of his coronavirus infection, this is another opportunity to stay politically alive. He wants to influence behind the scenes as much as possible, after his dream of becoming president of the Republic was taken away from him, and for this he longs to become the boss in the shadows, although the exit polls give him only between 6 and 1 8% of the votes. He has been very clear when speaking with followers: "Salvini has never worked, so I will try to be the director of the Government."
