Historic friends and the entire G7 are absent, among the few foreign leaders present at the state funeral of Silvio Berlusconi, who in 30 years of politics has met and known dozens of rulers from all over the world. But those times are long gone. And in Milan Cathedral, only the heads of state of three countries attended the funeral: the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and the two captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino, Alessandro Scarano and Adele Tonnini, sitting together with the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in the front row.
In the second row, only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama are among the heads of government present. From Europe, the President of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, attended the funeral, while the EU executive, at the request of European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, who was busy with a mission in Latin America, attended the funeral Economy Paolo Gentiloni was represented.
The rest of the world has decided to send ministers, diplomats and other representatives to pay their last respects to the knight. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is particularly close to Berlusconi, also sent his recently appointed foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, along with Omer Celik, spokesman for the president’s AKP party. Croatia, Tunisia, Malta and Kosovo have also sent their diplomatic chiefs. Also present were the representatives of the governments of Armenia, the Netherlands and Serbia, an envoy from Japan, ambassadors and chargé d’affaires.
From the list of participants in the funeral, the large international absences stand out more than the presences, in particular the leaders of Rome’s historical allies: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, other European and Western countries.
Then there are the leaders with whom he shared his political history: Bush, Blair, Merkel, Sarkozy. Finally, the apparent absence of his friend Vladimir Putin, who, more than anyone else, offered words of pain, affection and appreciation to Berlusconi on the occasion of his death. But now the Russian president is the opponent of Italy and the west allied with Kiev against the invasion of Ukraine. That’s why the Kremlin chief is careful not to travel to Milan, where he is also threatened with arrest: an international arrest warrant is actually out against him for war crimes because of the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
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