Gianluca Veneziani
Ma how is Berlusconi? This is the new question that has replaced the one, dominant until yesterday, “Will Silvio stand as a candidate for the Colle?”. The gap between the possible access to the Quirinale and the admission to San Raffaele yesterday morning, after three days in which he had carried out visits and exams, it was sudden. Such as to cast doubts on what the health conditions of the Cav were already in recent days, when his name was still at stake in the race for the presidency of the Republic. Yesterday afternoon Alberto Zangrillo, head physician at San Raffaele and doctor of Berlusconi, defined the hospitalization of the Cav due to “scheduled periodic clinical checks for some time and included in a standard protocol “. While yesterday morning the forced senator Licia Ronzulli he had guaranteed that “the president is a lion and will soon be roaring again.” Obviously we hope so.
ABSENCES – But it seems odd that, in the decisive week for his fate as a candidate for the Quirinale, Berlusconi deserted two political leaders fundamental with the other center-right leaders – the first on Thursday at Villa Grande, then blown up, the second on Saturday via Zoom – while he was busy carrying out routine checks (the first dates back to last Thursday). Why not postpone the exams for a few days, perhaps after your application has faded? From the entourage of Berlusconi, however, they ensure that these checks are a practice, to verify the heart conditions and the effects of Long Covid, and they have nothing to do with either the postponement of the Villa Grande summit, which was skipped for political reasons (Berlusconi had not yet dissolved the reserve), or with the lack of attendance at the summit on Saturday, in which the Cav preferred to announce the withdrawal of the application by means of a note.
Zangrillo himself yesterday reiterated that “precisely because of the contemporaneity between the expiry of the checks and the delicate political moment, Berlusconi went to the San Raffaele only after having communicated his intentions with respect to the candidacy for the presidency of the Republic”. Officially, there would be no direct link between the physical state of the Cav and its refusal to fight for the Colle. Even if it was the same family members who advised him not to try his hand at this enterprise for reasons related to his ailments. Moreover, Berlusconi’s defections, probably related to his health conditions, had already occurred in the previous days. On 17 and 18 January the Cav had not participated in Strasbourg nor at the commemoration of David Sassoli nor to the vote in person for the election of the new president, Roberta Metsola, opting for remote voting.
Under pressure for the hypothesis of his candidacy for the Colle, Berlusconi had preferred to spare himself an additional burden of stress due to the trip and the emotional impact that the last farewell to Sassoli would have entailed. As already last Tuesday, according to the reconstruction of Sgarbi, the force leader would have renounced allsquirrel operation, that is to phone calls to parliamentarians outside the center to invite them to support his candidacy.
PREVIOUS – Only disappointment at the lack of sufficient numbers or even fatigue from a commitment that was trying too hard? However, from the entourage of the Cav they argue that Berlusconi tried (successfully) to the last, as confirmed by the entries in FI of two new parliamentarians. And he is attentive to the evolution of the game for the Quirinale, as evidenced by the “cordial phone call” yesterday between him and Salvini. Certainly, the medical records by Berlusconi it should not be underestimated. In 2016 the Cav underwent an operation for the replacement of the aortic valve and in 2019 another for intestinal obstruction; in September 2020 is his hospitalization for Covid, in January 2021 he was hospitalized for a heart problem, while in May 2021 another for gastroenteritis. Based on this scenario and yesterday’s hospitalization, it can be argued that Berlusconi made a correct choice to renounce his candidacy for the Quirinale not so much for the good of the country, but for his own good.
