Today we publish the first part of a long interview with Silvio Berlusconi, the second episode hits newsstands on Saturday.
President Silvio Berlusconi, let’s start with the foreign policy of yesteryear: what is happening in the Far East with China’s aggressive policy towards Taiwan and the tensions with the United States shows that the destabilization of the global balance does not stop at Ukraine. Is it a mistake to underestimate Beijing’s expansionism?
“This is a serious mistake that I have long denounced. The crisis in Ukraine has brought war to the heart of Europe and it is natural that our attention is focused on it, but I have no doubt that the West’s systemic adversary in the 21st century will be China, as was the Soviet Union was in the 20th century. President Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was the pretext Beijing used for a showdown in which the West is distracted by events in Ukraine and unwilling to open another front. But securing the current order of the Taiwan Strait has been an impassable line for the entire West for decades. It is the arduous compromise Nixon reached with Mao’s China in exchange for recognizing the communist regime as China’s only legitimate representative.”
What are we actually risking today?
“If Beijing really intends to challenge this structure and threaten Taiwan’s democratic order, the consequences could be very serious, as many Western-aligned Asian countries would also be at risk, from Japan to South Korea, from Singapore to Australia.” If we add to this the effects of China’s economic expansionism in Asia and Africa (the serious politico-economic crisis in Sri Lanka is an example of what can happen to a country dependent on Beijing’s economic penetration), the presence of the Chinese fleet in Djibouti means control of Indian Ocean routes, penetration into Africa favoring migratory flows to Europe, acquisition of strategic infrastructures in the west through the so-called Silk Road policy, all these things paint an extremely dangerous expansionist picture. The imperialism of the ancient Chinese dynasties combined with modern communist totalitarianism. The result is an image that places the United States ever more directly in direct confrontation with China in the Pacific and, consequently, ever further removed from European affairs in perspective. Therefore, Europe must become an autonomous political and military entity, albeit in close liaison with the United States. Our future depends on all of this, much more than on the limited questions of Italian politics ».
Every other day, the representatives of the Democratic Party underline the reservations they would have expressed about the West’s policy towards Russia because of the aggression against Ukraine. They exploit his relationship with Putin in an election key. What do you think?
“I think it’s a very low-key operation. My relationship with Putin was set at different historical points in time and was in an attempt to build a relationship with Moscow – agreed, incidentally, with our American and European friends – that would bring Russia into a peaceful European and Western order based on international law. When Russia and NATO ended 50 years of the Cold War in Pratica di Mare, the goal seemed within reach. But all that belongs to the past. Now our position is very clear. It is that of our government, of Europe, of the Atlantic Alliance. Russia has violated international law and is now an aggressor country. I have repeated it a thousand times and it pains me to have to repeat it again. Our Atlanticism has been consistent for decades, unlike the left, which until recently has insisted on anti-Americanism and one-sided pacifism. Does the left have the courage to voice doubts? Just the Democratic Party, which just yesterday allied itself with those who voted against NATO expansion in Parliament a week ago?
Let’s go back to Italy. The great field of Letta is in chaos. He also lost Calenda. Do not think that the fault lies at the root of the policy chosen by the Secretary of the Democratic Party, that is, the call for mobilization against the center-right, seen as the enemy and not the opponent, which represents a true return to the Past? An orientation in which Letta has tried to put everything and its opposite without imagining a minimum of programmatic homogeneity to give life to an alternative government.
“Proposing some sort of 21st-century national liberation committee as if there were Nazis to fight is a frankly silly operation and does politicians a disservice. All of this measures the confusion, lack of ideas and even fear of the largest party on the left. The Democratic Party has ruled for many years without ever winning elections. I remember in 2008 I was the last prime minister the Italians voted for. Since then, the country’s government has depended on palace manoeuvres, on the minds of the electorate. Now all this has to come to an end. On September 25, Italians will finally choose who they want to be governed by».
For you, the decision, first by Renzi and then by Calenda, not to be part of the so-called broad field is proof that the Democratic Party is once again walking the path of left-wing populism? In fact, he left Draghi aside and was drawn into the logic that had led to the birth of the yellow-red government, by count two
“I wouldn’t give too much importance to what Renzi and Calenda are doing, both because it’s completely unpredictable and because they are two experienced figures in the buildings but far from people’s hearts. It is certainly funny that the former Secretary of the Democratic Party and a European Parliamentarian elected to the Democratic Party are only now realizing that the Democratic Party is a left-wing party that does not tolerate competitors on its left: pas d’ennemis à gauche, eh The French used to refer to the era of the Third Republic. For the left, almost a century of history has passed in vain».
Even Calenda, going with Letta and then going back, has shown what his heart is for: It doesn’t say you won’t go back and look at the Democratic Party the day after the vote, doesn’t it?
“Honestly, it’s likely, but it’s also irrelevant.”
However, it is clear that Renzi and Calenda are now imagining founding themselves together or separating is not yet clear – a third pole that interprets the demands of the moderate electorate by orienting itself on Draghi’s politics: President, take this one place exist?
“I repeat, these are all palace maneuvers, it’s what I used to love, defined as political theatre. The real center, as in all of Europe, is the one that revolves around the EPP, which we proudly represent in Italy. It is the largest European political family and has a very clear position as an alternative to the left».
Beyond the “opportunities” of the third pole, it is clear that this issue points to the moderate constituency. Don’t you think that the centre-right coalition as a whole should make further efforts to control the relationship with the middle class, with the VAT numbers, with all the worlds that animate the moderates? Within the coalition, only Forza Italia can play such a role, which is their natural reference, isn’t it? The forecasts are favorable, but if this argument is underestimated, is there a theoretical risk of missing out on overall victory by a hair’s breadth?
“One thing is certain, each additional vote in Forza Italia will reinforce the coalition’s moderate, centrist profile. We are different from our allies, although we share deep loyalty and cooperation with them. We are the only ones who represent simultaneously and in a coherent way the best Italian political-cultural traditions: the liberal, the Christian, the guarantor, the European, the Atlantic. The centre-right party will govern the country, but the greater the specific weight of Forza Italia in the future majority, the greater the impact of these ideas on government action. Also for this reason, for us, the vote is the only meaningful vote for those who consider themselves centrist and moderate ».