The death of the former head of government brings Italian politics into “a completely unknown phase”, said Massimo Nava on franceinfo on Monday.
With the death of Silvio Berlusconi at the age of 86, it is “the end of an era, the end of a dream without realization” of the unity of the Italian right, analyzes Massimo Nava, columnist at the Corriere Della Sera. “Silvio Berlusconi has cultivated from the beginning of his political career the unity of the moderate right. It is a vacuum that is created today”, believes the one who officiates in the columns of the Italian daily which first announced the death of the rider (article in Italian), Monday, June 12.
“Today the leader of the right is Giorgia Meloni who comes from the far right. We are at the start of a totally unknown phase”adds the editorialist of the Italian newspaper. “Silvio Berlusconi was the great manipulator of Italian political life, and he is the great media boss, ex-football boss of AC Milan”.
“He was above all a party boss, until the last day in his illness.”
Massimo Navaon franceinfo
The man who led Italy for nine died of leukemia at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, where he stayed several times. Massimo Nava recalls that very recently, “while the Cavaliere spent 45 days in hospital, all the party leaders went to see him for information, to manage the party. Because Silvio Berlusconi’s big mistake is not having a political legacy “.
The Cavaliere without heir
Today, the question now arises of his political heritage, also confirms on franceinfo Christophe Bouillaud, professor of political science at Sciences Po Grenoble. “The secret of Silvio Berlusconi’s political longevity is to have politically killed all the characters in the center right who could have overshadowed him”. Thus, for this academic, the Cavaliere “has no political heir”.
“It is the problem of the center right” Italian, adds Italy specialist Christophe Bouillaud. “By dint of being under the direction of a patriarch who absolutely does not want to give way, all the replacements have disappeared, do not exist or have gone elsewhere”. Example with the current head of government who “at some point in her career, was promoted by Silvio Berlusconirecalls the professor of political science. But Giorgia Meloni (…) understood very well from the start that it was absolutely not necessary to become the runner-up of this character who had a tendency to kill all his dolphins“.
The other specificity of Silvio Berlusconi was his ability to return regularly to the front of the Italian political scene. This observation can be explained by the fact that the centre-right electorate “only trusted Silvio Berlusconi, only the character he was”explains Christophe Bouillaud. “Never before has any other character managed to develop a similar loyalty among his voters”. Thus, analyzes the academic, “the secret of his longevity is that in fact he owned in a way a pack of voters which diminished over the years but which was his own group of voters”.