Forget about the “ready agreement in the center-right” optimistically announced by the Corriere della Sera. A nod here, another there, a parenthesis below and another above, the behind-the-scenes of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s stubbornness on preference votes, which she wants to reintroduce in the Senate electoral law after failing to achieve the goal in the Chamber, shows Forza Italia divided between the Berlusconi family, opposed, and the party secretary Antonio Tajani, not opposed, if not favorable. Still willing to satisfy Meloni also to keep some space open within his own party when preparing the candidate lists, so as not to be dominated especially by Marina Berlusconi. Who in turn prevails over her brother Pier Silvio, usually more respectful towards Meloni when he talks about her.
Thus, a clash between two all-female stubbornnesses is looming: Giorgia and Marina, Meloni and Berlusconi. A clash that, if disastrously confirmed in Montecitorio with the mandatory secret ballot also in the second and final passage, after that of the Senate, could provide Marina in particular with the occasion or retaliatory pretext to reposition Forza Italia, as they say in political and toponymic jargon. The party of the Arcore family would be tempted to leave Meloni a prisoner, on the right, of General Vannacci and what would remain of Matteo Salvini’s League, offering another perspective to the center present in the broad field of the alternative.
However, it would be an illusion. The many roosters, but now also hens of the center wandering in the broad field, all endowed more with ambitions than votes, might prefer to stay where they are rather than put themselves, and moreover lose, at the service of a family now projected more towards the past of the founder of Forza Italia than the future.
