Experience shows that vetoes often produce results contrary to those intended. Making the government area accessible to apparently anti-system political forces is the best way to disempower them electorally and align them politically. The original skepticism of the European establishment towards Forza Italia must be remembered. This is why the resistance of Scholz and Macron towards the dialogue with Meloni and Ecr could be counterproductive. Cangini’s italics
06/17/2024
There was a time, in Brussels, when suspicions and prejudices were pinned on Forza Italia. In the second half of the nineties, the political creature of Silvio Berlusconi it was still a mysterious object and the nonconformism of its leader did not please old-fashioned European politicians.
It was not easy for Forza Italia to be admitted into the most authoritative and representative European political family.
Entry into the European People’s Party took place on 8 June 1998, the 27 Berlusconi MEPs were allowed to join only “in a personal capacity” and yet the EPP group split: 94 voted in favor of entry, those against there were 34.
The rest of the story is known. Forza Italia has become a cornerstone of the EPP, Antonio Tajani he held important institutional positions in Brussels, Silvio Berlusconi’s pro-European approach has never wavered. It is to be believed that the doors of the European establishment had been slammed in his face, Forza Italia’s political line with respect to pro-European orthodoxy would have been much more light-hearted, and the more or less explicitly anti-European transversal front would have secured a new hero.
It is useful to remember this precedent to better understand the possible consequences of the German Chancellor’s resistance Scholzof the French president Macronof the European Social Democratic Group and of various sectors of the EPP itself to speak on an equal level of legitimacy with the party of Giorgia Meloniand, in perspective, with the other parties of the conservative Ecr group.
Experience shows that vetoes often produce results contrary to those intended. Making the government area accessible to apparently anti-system political forces is the best way to disempower them electorally and align them politically. That’s what happened with Matteo Salvini in Italy.
