Italy election: "Stay away from the toxic Berlusconi" - Söder also reprimands EPP boss Weber

Created: 09/27/2022, 06:45 am

By: Christian Deutschländer

Manfred Weber supported Berlusconi in Italy's election campaign.

© IMAGO/Antonio Balasco

Italy has chosen.

Giorgia Meloni will probably be at the head of government.

The CSU criticizes EPP boss Manfred Weber for his support.

Munich – The choice of words is polite, one turns to “dear Manfred”.

But the content is harsh.

There was a controversial debate about Italy in the CSU board on Monday.

In the centre: European politician and party vice-president Weber.

He was sharply criticized for his support of the right-wing alliance, participants report.

The core of the conflict: Weber, who leads the European Conservatives (EPP) as party and faction leader, had visited and supported Silvio Berlusconi during the election campaign.

Political senior Berlusconi may be seen as odd or embarrassing outside of Italy.

More tricky is that his "Forza Italia" with the right-wing populist "Lega" will probably bring Giorgia Meloni's far-right "Fratelli d'Italia" to the top of the government.

Weber argues that he wants to strengthen Forza, which is clearly pro-European and based in the EPP.

He also does not consider Meloni to be a fascist, but wants to force her to take a clearly pro-European, pro-Ukrainian and pro-constitutional course.

Italy election: "Must not be our partner" - Dobrindt criticizes

Criticism hailed in the CSU leadership.

"Anyone who supports right-wing national parties must not be our partner," said Alexander Dobrindt, head of the regional group.

That is "unacceptable".

Foreign policy expert Florian Hahn said the CSU must "stay away from toxic people like Orbán, Putin, but also Berlusconi".

Party leader Markus Söder also took on Weber and called for a “fire wall to the right”.

It is "a problem when middle-class radicals heave into office".

He accuses Weber of making a “serious strategic mistake”.

"You noticed yourself that promoting Berlusconi in Bavaria wasn't really useful." That's what earwitnesses quote him as saying.

Curious: Weber is actually the last person in the CSU to whom one would have to explain a demarcation to the right.

Internally, it is said that the billing on the board also has other motives.

Weber had indirectly questioned Söder's claim to leadership after the state election on Saturday - which Söder, to put it mildly, did not find funny.

After the Italian election, the CDU is debating a new alliance

However, there are also debates in the sister party, the CDU, about how much one should condemn Meloni and her alliance.

In the "Spiegel" several members of the Bundestag demand not to tear down bridges to Forza Italia.

Jana Schimke (CDU) says it is "undemocratic to meet an election winner with such rejection and threats before the new government has even been formed".

The official position of the faction, however, is different.

The result was "worrying in view of Meloni's openly post-fascist statements and the hair-raising positions of her party comrades," spread the Union faction on Twitter.