The honeymoon is finished even before any marriage of political convenience in Italy could be formalized. The resounding victory by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in the Sept. 25 general election isn't sitting well with 86-year-old Silvio Berlusconi, the former three-time conservative premier who, four decades her senior, fancies himself the elder statesman of Italy's political right. Meloni is expected to be asked next week by Italy's president to try to create a governing coalition with campaign allies Berlusconi and right-wing leader Matteo Salvini and become premier. Behind-the-scenes divvying up of ministries in what would be Italy's first far-right-led government since the end of World War II started after her Brothers of Italy party took 26% of the ballots cast, more than those won by the forces of Salvini and Berlusconi combined
The knives carving out those Cabinet posts are proving particularly sharp. Salvini on Saturday issued a sort of call for a truce between Meloni and Berlusconi so that three allies' bid to rule Italy isn't derailed.
"I am sure that even between Giorgia and Silvio that harmony, which will be fundamental to government, well and together, for the next five years, will return,'' Salvini said in a statement released by his anti-migrant League party about the escalating post-election tensions. A spat between Berlusconi and Meloni turned ugly when the former premier and a media mogul scrawled a list of derogatory adjectives about her on stationery emblazoned with the name of his villa near Milan. He positioned it in the Senate in plain view for photographers covering the election on Thursday of the upper parliamentary chamber's president. “Giorgia Meloni,” wrote Berlusconi, jotting down that her ways are “presumptuous, bossy, arrogant, offensive.” A fifth adjective, "ridiculous,'' appeared to have been scribbled over, said Italian media, who magnified the image.
As much as political differences — Berlusconi bills himself a staunch champion of the European Union, while Meloni has said national interests should prevail over any conflicting EU priorities — their spat seemed patriarchal. "In Berlusconi's etiquette, the woman is courted and maybe even venerated, but a true male cannot take orders from her, let alone accept that she says ‘no,’'' wrote Massimo Gramellini in the daily Corriere della Serra, in his front-page fixture that takes aim at political foibles. By all accounts, Meloni had vetoed a ministry for a close political aide of Berlusconi who is one of his several female political proteges.