Thirty years ago, Silvio Berlusconi sent a video of more than nine minutes that would change the history of Italy. "Italy is the country I love", began the legendary recording, of more than nine minutes, which entered the mythology of the country as the moment when the television entrepreneur and owner of Milan announced, using football language, that he was going down to the pitch game These days everyone remembers the idea of Mediaset cameraman Roberto Gasparotti, who placed a famous nylon sock on top of the lens to invent an Instagram filter before social networks were born – in Italy everything always comes first – and rejuvenate the skin of the entrepreneur, who was then 56 years old. "To make the image softer, brighter, creating a skin tone effect", he explained in an interview with La Repubblica.
Over the next three decades, Berlusconi became a central figure in Italian and European politics. He led four governments - and also numerous sexual and judicial scandals - and opened the door to the formation of the current one: he was the first to legitimize pacts with the ultra-right in Italy until first the League and then Brothers Italy was overtaken. Forza Italia celebrated the 30th anniversary of its birth on Friday with an event with the greatest pomp in Rome, a nostalgia operation that comes as doubts about its future have not yet dissipated after the death of its founder.
But there was a remarkable absence: that of the representatives of the Berlusconi family, who still today are the owners of the training. The party has a considerable debt of 90 million euros with the Berlusconi family, who therefore have the last word on the political future of the right. When Italy buried the tycoon with a state funeral for history, many wondered if it would soon be time to also bury his political artifact, for which Berlusconi never got around to naming a clear heir.
Of all the great collaborators who helped Berlusconi found Forza Italia, only Antonio Tajani, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, 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. Its opponents, in fact, point to the absence of the family at Friday's celebration. Sources close to the Berlusconi wanted to reveal that the family intends to continue supporting the party, "also because of the affection for the political creature to which Silvio Berlusconi dedicated the last 30 years of his life".
Support, of course, will be conditional on the party continuing to strengthen its accounts, they warn. For the first time in a long time, the voters have seen that turbulent times are approaching and have increased donations through the income statement, with which they have collected almost 620,000 euros. "We are demonstrating that the understandable concerns due to the death of President Berlusconi have been disproved. We are in a moment of relaunching the party and we have the responsibility to lead Forza Italia into a new phase", says Deborah Bergamini, deputy and international secretary of Forza Italia. This is the message that Tajani himself wants to establish, who insists 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, in which Forza Italia risks seeing an overwhelming victory for Brothers of Italy, especially if Meloni finally makes up her mind and presents herself as a candidate. Then, a few days before the first anniversary of Berlusconi's death, the waters could begin to move. Forza Italia has long been stagnant in the polls with between 7 and 8% of voter intention. The death of the founder momentarily propelled them, but the space they aspire to 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 says that his goal is to reach 10%, driven by the brand of the European People's Party. Its leader, Manfred Weber, was the first to bless his alliance with Giorgia Meloni. And, while the character of Matteo Salvini could have been uncomfortable for the prime minister, during this time Tajani wanted to present himself as the reliable partner.
"The style of Forza Italia remains the same even if Berlusconi is no longer there: a non-ideological movement with the aim of bringing civil society into politics and doing it with pragmatism and common sense. We are the most reliable", promises Bergamini.
