The PDL splits on the Government and is split. At the end of a dramatic day and a few hours before the National Council of the PDL which will give life to Forza Italia, the loyalists reject Angelino Alfano's latest mediation proposal which proposed separating Silvio Berlusconi's forfeiture as a parliamentarian from the fate of the Government and the party crashes spectacularly.
Faced with the refusal of Fitto and the loyalists on the Government, Alfano took note and gave the go-ahead for the split: "I never thought it would come to this but we cannot join a Forza Italia in the hands of extremists" Alfano said announced the formation of autonomous groups in Parliament which will be called "New centre-right", while remaining friends of Berlusconi.
According to initial calculations, with Alfano there are 23 deputies and 37 senators (which shelters the Letta government). The move by Schifani who resigned as group leader in the Senate and approached Alfano is making noise.
“It's no longer the party of '94” Alfano argued as he gathered his followers a stone's throw from Palazzo Grazioli and added: “We will be attacked, but we will not be afraid. I feel very strongly the need to reiterate that in these 20 years we have not got our hopes, ideals or people wrong. We are friends of President Berlusconi to whom we reiterate our friendship and support. But this is not the Forza Italia we met in '94”.
After all, Silvio Berlusconi had paved the way for division by saying yesterday afternoon that "Forza Italia is everyone's home, but anyone who doesn't share our values should go away". The reaction to the split by Raffaele Fitto, the leader of the loyalists, who speaks of the split as "a very serious act against the Knight" was furious. But it was precisely the hawks who convinced Berlusconi to reject the government agreement that paved the way for the rift.
This morning, at the Orione theater in Rome, the National Council for the birth of Forza Italia with the Berlusconi kermesse.
