Of somersaults i Five stars they have done a lot in this legislature, but go to help Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset hoping that no one remembers when they thundered against the Caiman of Arcore it really seems a bit too nonchalant. Or not?
In fact, they are not wrong the former director of Corriere della Sera Paolo Mieli and the deputy director of Huffington Italia, Alessandro De Angelis, who yesterday, in the transmission of Lucia Annunziata "Mezz'ora in più" on Rai Tre, wondered what sense the ritual of the Five Star Congress had when in reality the fact main politician of recent times has already happened last Wednesday, with the secret clearance of Berlusconi in the Senate and with the approval of a "Mediaset-saving" regulation, which intends to put Vincent Bollorè's French group in a corner in the case of hypothetical takeovers of the Segrate group and which has already alarmed Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission. Customs clearance of Berlusconi occurred – it would be unforgivable not to mention it, even if nobody talks about it – on the initiative of the Pd, who was the first to present the “save Mediaset” amendment to the Senate Constitutional Affairs Commission with the signature of Valeria Valente – and the full support of the Five Stars as well as, obviously, that of the Government and all the groups of the majority. Even if, later, it was Grillo's minister of economic development (Mise), Stefano Patuanelli, who assumed the paternity of the controversial pro-Mediaset law.
Of course, Silvio Berlusconi thanks and reciprocates by offering – as he did in yesterday's interview with Corriere della Sera - the willingness of Forza Italia to support the Government also in view of the new budget manoeuvre. Enlarging the majority or shoring it up after the growing defections of the Grillini MPs is more than understandable and opening a dialogue with Berlusconi after the leader of Forza Italia has developed positions that are clearly different from the sovereign ones of Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni it can certainly be useful and reasonable for government forces. But it is one thing to do it openly on the central issues of the country and another thing instead to do it on highly slippery ground that inevitably inspires bad thoughts and suspicions of inappropriate exchanges like the one concerning Mediaset, which is certainly an important asset for Italy (and above all for the Berlusconi family) but which is difficult to define as strategic and in need of special protection with respect to hypothetical foreign assaults.
Let's say it like it is: more than a legitimate defense of the national interest, the Mediaset-saving rule has the flavor of a clumsy surrender of the government majority to the corporate interests of Berlusconi in a move both technically and politically wrong. And don't come and tell that it's a trick in exchange for parliamentary assistance from Forza Italia in case the Government risks being shipwrecked. Compromises are certainly the salt of politics, but you have to know how to make them and when they are messed up and improvised they risk becoming an own goal. After all, not centuries have passed since the anathemas of Beppe Grillo and Luigi Di Maio but also of Nicola Zingaretti and Pierluigi Bersani against Matteo Renzi, whenever the leader of Italia Viva imagined opening a dialogue with Berlusconi and with a part of Forza Italy to send the Lega-Cinque Stelle government home ahead of time. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Except that by dint of recklessly overturning their political line, Pd and Cinque Stelle should not be surprised if their credibility in the eyes of the citizens loses share and if, in the end, the only one who gains is Silvio Berlusconi who, from the day since his entry into the field in 1994, he has always been very good at mixing corporate interests and political objectives.
