‘He was a tremendous man’: will Berlusconi’s party still get the votes without him?
One of Silvio Berlusconi’s final wishes was to see the lago dei cigni, or swan lake, centrepiece of Milano 2, the peaceful, lusciously green residential development built by the entrepreneur on the outskirts of the northern Italian city, and a debut triumph that put him on the path to becoming a billionaire and ultimately conquering politics.
On his way to nearby San Raffaele hospital, where he died three days later at the age of 86, Berlusconi and his entourage, including his 33-year-old partner Marta Fascina, stopped at the Maximilian Bistrot, where he took a seat by a window with a view of the artificial lake and ordered an ice lolly.
“It wasn’t the first time he visited,” said Massimiliano Albanese, the owner of the bar and restaurant. “He would sit in the same seat, to look at the lake, and wanted to see it again. He was worn out, but still open, chatty and affectionate with everyone.”
Berlusconi died after a battle against leukaemia, and a life marked as much by his phenomenal business and political prowess – he was Italy’s longest-serving prime minister since the second world war – as it was by the countless scandals that plagued him.
One of his last achievements was to get his Forza Italia party back into government, albeit as a less powerful member of a rightwing coalition forged by him but now led by prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
The fate of the party, which currently hovers at about 9.5% support in opinion polls, and whether it can survive without its flamboyant leader are now among Italy’s most burning political questions.
Berlusconi’s trip down memory lane in the hours before he was taken to hospital is significant, as without Milano 2, completed in 1979 and today home to about 8,000 residents, there would probably be no Forza Italia.
Born in Milan, Berlusconi had already mastered the art of selling property after borrowing money from the bank where his father worked as a clerk to fund several small projects in the city before conceiving the idea of Milano 2, where spacious homes targeting a burgeoning middle class were marketed as “in Milan but without the smog and traffic”.
With its ample green space, quaint bridges, shops, hotel, church and round-the-clock security, the development was ahead of its time. Berlusconi even had the skies above the site closed off to air traffic.
Where Berlusconi got hold of the capital for the project remains mysterious and controversial, but the venture made him millions, allowing him first to move into advertising and then build an empire encompassing everything from TV – including Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster – and newspapers to banking and football before he eventually set his sights on politics.
“Milano 2 was his first major project and he was very proud of it,” said Domenico Ciliberti, a friend and political associate of Berlusconi.
Those who live there are proud of it too. In a small square by Maximilian Bistrot, Berlusconi installed a monument dedicated to the development and its creator. It was made by Pietro Cascella, the same sculptor commissioned to build the marble mausoleum in the grounds of the billionaire’s home in Arcore where his ashes were placed. Residents draped the monument with flowers and tributes in an expression of their gratitude. “Silvio you were a genius with human weaknesses – they
made you one of us,” said a message signed by “Gunter and Arlene”. Another referred to a “great warrior”. “Everything you touched you nourished like a big and luxuriant garden,” the message added.
But this admiration may not necessarily translate into votes for Forza Italia, which Berlusconi founded in 1993, before going on to win his first general election a few months later.
Giulia, who was walking through the square on her way to work, said: “He was a tremendous man who brought economic wellbeing to this area.” She voted for the party, but as time went on and Berlusconi’s controversies overshadowed his achievements, she said many of her neighbours did not. “They spat on the plate that fed them,” she hissed.
Elisabetta Frigerio said she was “very grateful” to Berlusconi but had never voted for Forza Italia. “Thanks to him I have a house – I never met him, but when I was in need he helped me out through mutual acquaintances.”
Louise Weiner, originally from Sweden, who has lived in Milano 2 for 30 years, was scathing of the politician but not the businessman. “Living here is a paradise,” she said while walking her two dogs. “It’s like a big park. I raised my daughter here and it was very safe – I could leave her playing with friends without worrying.”
Ciliberti, who met Berlusconi in the 1970s when the pair used to go to discos together, said Forza Italia was expected to be temporarily headed by deputy leader Antonio Tajani. “He will be there until the European elections,” Ciliberti added.
The European parliamentary ballot next year will be decisive for Forza Italia, with one of its challenges being to ensure it reaches the minimum 4% entrance threshold.
Its survival will also depend on continued funding from its founders’ family and good relations with Meloni’s government. Before his death, Berlusconi paid €90m of the party’s €100m debt in order to save it from extinction. Forza Italia was therefore now “inextricably linked” to the Berlusconi family, namely his five offspring, said a source familiar with the situation.
Some commentators have suggested that his eldest daughter, Marina, who chairs Fininvest, the family holding company, will eventually lead Forza Italia. The source said Marina, who has developed a political axis with Meloni, who in turn needs a stable Forza Italia to maintain a stable government, will manage the party from behind the scenes. But who will take over in the longer term is not clear.
Alessandro Cattaneo, the national deputy coordinator of Forza Italia, said Berlusconi would live on in the party through his “values and ideals” but that it also needed to capture new votes by creating something that was “fresh, modern and authoritative”.
Francesco Galietti, the founder of Policy Sonar, a consultancy in Rome, believes the European elections will mark the end of the line for Forza Italia. “People will be asked to vote, and I want to see how many will vote for
Forza Italia without Berlusconi,” he said. “Even if there are a couple of renegades, the bar for the EU elections is set very high.”
Time will tell. Back at Maximilian Bistrot, Albanese recounts how a gauntlooking Berlusconi would buy all the children ice-cream whenever he passed by and still had enough energy to muster up a smile for a photo with his son. “There was something genuine in that gesture, it wasn’t a fake pose. This made me think even more highly of him,” he said.
But will this endearing final encounter be enough for Albanese, who said he never voted Forza Italia, to support the party? “Maybe,” he said. “Let’s see how things progress.”