Marco Follini: Berlusconi? “Friend and enemy of Italian populism: friend without wanting to, enemy without being able to”

Among the many courtly and conformist comments on Silvio Berlusconi political and on the same uncritical antagonisms the reflections published by "The print” and as usual lucid and meditated by Marco Follini, first ally and then adversary of the late former prime minister. Above all, two judgments by Follini on Berlusconi are striking. The first is the one who remembers it as "showman of Italian politics" but at the same time "intolerant of the same idea of ​​politics, which is almost always a painstaking effort and almost never a sudden flash". Follini's second judgment that deserves attention is the one that represents Berlusconi as “the friend and the enemy of Italian populism, the friend without wanting it and the enemy without being able to, the friend without conviction and the enemy without possibility” with a “far from innocent ambiguity which however now presents the bill”. In fact, Follini explains: "Berlusconi made his way, also on the strength of that anxious feeling, which began to spread well before him (and his televisions) but which he himself ended up riding with a sort of lightness". But then "he must have realized that that same feeling could become a beast that is difficult to tame" and he tried to "pull the reins" but the levee had already blown. Follini is right: his judgments are highly shared.