Forza Italia, Tajani: “Roles for Berlusconi’s children? They will decide what to do”
“First you need to get to the National Council to elect the president. I will ask the Presidential Committee to hold it before the summer break”, explains Antonio Tajani, deputy prime minister and foreign minister, in an interview with Corriere della Sera, adding that “no one feels like Berlusconi’s replacement. It would be impossible. Until election day, I will try to lead Forza Italia without fear of facing difficulties, and with the clear line that Berlusconi has entrusted to us”.
“I’ve always been against currents – he explains -, I don’t believe in personalities but in people and I’m sure everyone will have something important to do. Everyone, it’s my intention, will be involved, the movement must be united. We’re not starting from scratch: we are all supporters of this government. As the group leaders demonstrate, there is already a representation from North, South and Centre. And I repeat: there will be a role for anyone who wants to work”. On the direct commitment on the field of one of Silvio Berlusconi’s sons, Tajani affirms: “They will decide. At the moment Marina was very clear. They are beside us, they encourage us, they give us support, in ‘respecting the different roles'” .
Marina Berlusconi leader? There is temptation
According to Corriere della Sera, there is the temptation of Marina Berlusconi. “His is the name articulated in Piazza Duomo, while the father’s coffin is about to leave on its last journey and, in the churchyard, five brothers and only one head of the family remain. The crowd screams: Marina, Marina, Marina. Everyone knows that Silvio Berlusconi and the eldest daughter spoke at least three times a day; everyone remembers that whenever her father was under attack, she was the one who took the field and defended him in the newspapers”.
“For years, many have identified her as a possible political heir and also endowed with charismatic leadership due to her precise and ruthless outings. This despite Berlusconi repeating that he would never want his children to suffer what he had suffered. She has always rejected the hypothesis, except in 2014″, recalls the Corriere della Sera. “In the meantime, it is said that she will decide whether to run for the seat left empty by her father will be one of the family, perhaps her younger brother Luigi, perhaps uncle Paolo, and that he will have the last word on the European lists. On the other hand, it was also said that she was behind the latest reorganization of the party and the downsizing of Licia Ronzulli”.
Berlusconi, the other legacy made up of villas, ships and works of art
In the meantime, we are getting to the heart of understanding Berlusconi’s legacy. As Corriere della Sera recalls, there is not only Fininvest. “TO who will go to Villa San Martino in Arcore, symbol of Berlusconi’s power? And the pharaonic Villa Certosa in Sardinia who welcomed heads of state and powerful people from half the world in slippers and Bermuda shorts? Can we imagine that Arcore will be sold? Or the apartments in Viale San Gimignano in Milan where did Rosa Bossi, the Cavaliere’s mother, move in the 1960s?”
According to Corriere della Sera, it is “easier for some properties to be divided among the heirs to be put on the market and therefore destined to be “monetised”. Among these, the main asset, the villa of Porto Rotondo which an expert appraisal valued at 259 million but could find buyers on the market even at much higher prices”.
Also for the Corriere there are only four properties that the former leader of Forza Italia owned personally, not caged in a company and which he could therefore have attributed directly to the heirs without share filters. The first is the historic residence in Milan-San Gimignano. The second is the “Due Palme” cottage in Lampedusa (250 square meters) of which he announced the purchase in 2011 after landing on the island, which was besieged by landings. The third was one of Berlusconi’s favorite refuges outside Brianza: Villa Campari on Lake Maggiore, in Lesa, not far from the house that once belonged to Mike Bongiorno, thirty rooms, a splendid park, beautifully combed grass and a private marina. And the fourth: the two rooms of the eccentric Trieste artist Cesare Correnti.
Then there are the works of art, some — underlines Corriere della Sera — of great value. “Among the legendary stories about Berlusconi, even that of a hangar with 24,000 paintings”.
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