Silvio Berlusconi drew a volley of green wood on Wednesday in Italy after saying he was "
reconnecting
" with Vladimir Putin who sent him vodka for his birthday, and blaming Kiev for the invasion of Ukraine.
“
Berlusconi freewheeling
”, “
Berlusconi without brake
”, and even, for La
Repubblica
, Giorgia “
Meloni hostage of the pro-Russians
”: the Italian press on Wednesday widely echoed the confidences made this week by the billionaire to deputies of his party, Forza Italia.
His words were leaked and those around him initially denied it, but an audio recording was then broadcast, shocking future Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is working to form a government with her coalition allies, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia. and Matteo Salvini's League.
Read alsoFor Berlusconi, Putin was “pushed” to invade Ukraine
“
I reconnected with President Putin a little, a little a lot, in the sense that for my birthday, Putin sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a very nice letter.
I responded by sending him bottles of Lambrusco and a very nice letter.
He told me that I was the first of his five real friends
, ”continued the former Prime Minister who celebrated his 86th birthday on September 29.
Hastily, Forza Italia issued a statement to clarify the position of the party and Berlusconi vis-à-vis Russia and Ukraine, "
in line with that of Europe and the United States
".
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The leftist opposition went wild.
“
It's not folklore, it's not jokes.
The new majority is initiating a change in Italy's trajectory towards an increasingly ambiguous position towards Russia
, ”denounced Enrico Letta, head of the Democratic Party, on Twitter.
- Berlusconi's recurring statements could weaken the position of Antonio Tajani, a close, pro-European, tipped for Foreign Affairs.
Giorgia Meloni's entourage tried to calm things down. " I would
avoid involving Tajani
," said Francesco Lollobrigida, Fratelli d'Italia deputy, on Wednesday.
"
He was president of the European Parliament (...) and always defended the Western alliance
" after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, he underlined.
But for other sources within Fratelli d'Italia, quoted by the daily La Stampa, "
Berlusconi could have killed Tajani
".
During the election campaign, Berlusconi had already provoked indignation by asserting that Vladimir Putin had wanted to overthrow the Kiev government to put in its place “
good people
”.
Read alsoItaly: the Meloni era begins with two victories for the far right
In the rest of this audio recording, a new part of which leaked on Wednesday evening, Mr. Berlusconi seems to blame the war on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who, according to him, “
has tripled the attacks
” against the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass .
“
In 2014 in Minsk, Belarus, an agreement was signed between Ukraine and the two newly formed republics in Donbass for a peace agreement and that no one attacks anyone.
A year later, Ukraine threw away this agreement and began to attack the borders of the two republics
,” Mr. Berlusconi told his elected officials.
He mentions "
5-6-7 thousand dead
" in these fights then "
Zelensky arrives and triples the attacks against the two republics
", adds the tycoon, later resuming his remarks at the end of September according to which Putin was "
pushed
" by its population and its entourage to invade Ukraine.
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