Rome, Jun. 13, (dpa/GNA) - The death of Italy’s veteran politician and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is likely to pose challenges to the cohesion of the country’s coalition government.
More discord looms in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet after the head of the Forza Italia party’s death, at the age of 86. Berlusconi was seen as a moderator and conciliator in Rome’s right-wing coalition.
“It will certainly be more difficult because he managed to get everyone to agree, put everyone on the same page,” said Matteo Salvini, deputy prime minister and leader of the right-wing populist Lega party.
Salvini’s Lega is a significantly smaller partner in the coalition than Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, but slightly larger than Forza Italia, which Berlusconi founded and led until recently.
When Italian TV broadcaster Canale 5 asked Meloni whether the government would manage not to quarrel without Berlusconi as the “glue” between the parties, she replied, “We owe it to him.”
It won’t be easy, however.
“He was the glue, but also the most experienced of us,” she said.
Being able to ask Berlusconi – who was prime minister on four occasions between 1994 and 2011 – for advice was reassuring, Meloni acknowledged.
Now she will have to get by without her former mentor – and perhaps soon without Forza Italia altogether.
“One thing is clear: The question is how long Forza Italia will have a future without Berlusconi,” says Nino Galetti, head of the German political think-tank the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Rome office. For many years, the party has been losing voters and deputies – only Berlusconi has held it together in recent times, thanks to his charisma and the memory of earlier successes.
Galetti told dpa he can foresee two scenarios: One is that Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani manages to save the party for now.
“Or, Forza Italia quickly falls apart because many deputies defect to other parties. A hard core is likely to remain, but it will then be increasingly irrelevant politically,” Galetti said.
If Berlusconi’s party falls apart, Meloni could benefit if she manages to win over voters for her Fratelli d’Italia. The chances are good: In the most recent parliamentary elections, she already took a great number of votes away from Forza Italia.
GNA