"I appreciate many things about Matteo Salvini. First of all the great ability to work, to listen, to get in tune with the voters. But Forza Italia has not moved towards anyone" and with Giorgia Meloni "there has never been a distance. We had different assessments on the Draghi government, with great mutual respect for their respective choices ".
These are the opinions expressed by the president of Forza Italia,
Silvio Berlusconi
, speaking of the allied leaders in an interview with the Libero newspaper.
On the relations between his party and the League, the former premier added: "We are the liberal, Christian, guarantor, pro-European, Atlantic component of the center right. We proudly represent the European People's Party in Italy, the largest political family in Italy. Europe, the alternative center to the left. The relationship between us is very cordial, but the League has a history and a political role different from ours ".
Ditto for Fratelli d'Italia with whom, Berlusconi reiterated, there are "differences in political culture, language and method".
Finally, answering a question about the "glue" of the center-right, he said: "The center-right exists in the hearts of the Italians, before in the agreements between the parties. The left is divided over everything, the Democratic Party, which speaks every day of Atlanticism. , did not hesitate to ally with Fratoianni's left, which has just voted against the enlargement of NATO to include Finland and Sweden ".
"In the first hundred days we will simply have to secure the state accounts to avoid the provisional exercise," Berlusconi said, then listing the commitments for the next 5 years, in view of the vote on 25 September.
"Our priority is to free Italy from the three oppressions, the fiscal one, with the flat tax at 23%, the bureaucratic one, with the abolition of preventive authorizations and the judicial one with the strengthening of citizens' rights - he explains - We will have a particular attention to the weakest and the elderly, bringing all pensions to 1000 euros per month for 13 months. We will work for the future of our children, so that they can have a stable and decent paid job. We will devote particular attention to ' environment, greenery, renewable energies. Of course, to achieve all this, the Forza Italia lists must be strengthened by voting. "