Manfred Weber, president of the EPP, and Antoni Tajani, coordinator of Forza Italia
Ukraine, the revenge of the EPP: Berlusconi blackmailed by Weber
The facts are known. Silvio Berlusconi said a few days ago about the Ukrainian leader Zelensky: “I judge this gentleman’s behavior very, very negatively. If I had been prime minister I would not have met him”. So long as Forza Italia is part of the majority that supports Giorgia Meloni who in turn supports Zelensky and the war in Ukraine, the words have exploded all over the world causing disturbances and hesitations in the establishment but also in the government, given that Palazzo Chigi had to reply by return of post by saying that Italy’s moral and material support for Ukraine is not questioned.
But Manfred Weber, “teteskone ti Germany” and president of the EPP, immediately retorted: “Following Silvio Berlusconi’s statements on Ukraine we have decided to cancel our study days in Naples. Support for Ukraine is not optional “. In short, we are blackmail. “The ball is mine and I take it away from me and you don’t play anymore”. But Arcore turned upside down, as they say, and the counter-reply immediately arrived: “With the world on the brink of a nuclear war between Russia and the NATO countries, I am being criticized because I am asking that together with the support for Ukraine, which has always been shared and voted for by Forza Italia, a table be opened immediately to reach the peace. This is a duty for a party like the EPP”.
The one that risks ending up like San Sebastiano, “braided” simultaneously by both Berlusconi and Weber, however, is the poor Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani that he must mediate between two opposing fronts and in fact Weber was keen to clarify that he still had esteem and trust in him: “We continue to collaborate with the Italian government on EU issues”. And to think that Weber was considered a friend by the Cavaliere who only last summer did he write: “Today I received my friend Manfred Weber”, while Weber replied: “Let the electors vote for Forza Italia, for those who believe in a strong process of European integration”.
This note only six months ago. So Tajani tweeted for the avoidance of doubt: “Berlusconi is Forza Italia, Forza Italia is Berlusconi: I therefore do not share the decision to postpone the meeting in Naples, also because Berlusconi and Forza Italia have always voted like the EPP Group on Ukraine as demonstrated the acts of the European Parliament”. In short, a thorny and complex situation which, however, makes us reflect. The Naples conference in view of Europe 2024 was to be held from 7 to 9 June and all the MEPs of the EPP were expected (remember that it is the first group in Strasbourg) and also the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. In short, all big shots, pieces of 90.
The censorship fell on Silvio Berlusconi whose ties to Russia and personal to Vladimir Putin are well known. However, if you don’t do as Brussels or Strasbourg says, you are immediately beaten and even the right to speak is taken away. It’s called mainstream, it’s called Single Thought, it’s called Deep State. Berlusconi was right to make his dissenting voice heard given that what happens in the EPP also affects Forza Italia. In fact, the maneuver to approach the EPP that Giorgia Meloni is making, she who is the leader of the European Conservatives and Progressives party, a marginal party in the Old Continent, is very clear to the Cavaliere. You are therefore the founder of Forza Italia he risks not only freedom of speech but also risks being crushed in the pincers of Meloni and Weber and at the end of the game it could also lose the support of the EPP and find itself isolated in Europe.
However, Berlusconi has the means to win this match – which is mainly internal to the Italian government. It would be enough to remind the premier of her ancient and very close friendship with Viktor Orban in turn a friend of Putin and it would be enough to remind Meloni that only a year ago he was anti-European and ideologically close to Russia, before the Atlantic turning point. It would be enough for Salvini to “remember” when he walked around Red Square in a T-shirt with Putin’s face. It would be enough for Mediaset to stop helping internal enemies. This would be enough to rebalance the situation and also deal with the balance in the centre-right.
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