Berlusconi defends Nordio: “We support his reforms with absolute conviction”

That Silvio Berlusconi was in harmony with the line of Justice Minister Carlo Nordio is certainly not new. But that he defended him”with absolute conviction”, openly railing against the “partisanship, falsehood and legal ignorance” of “some sectors”, is probably the most evident sign of what Cav. have justice reform at heart. In today’s interview with Corriere, Berlusconi begins by silencing a reading that he believes to be unfounded: “The idea that being guarantor means being less firm in the fight against the mafia is simply absurd”. Thus vindicating his past choices – those of “a man who had 6,754 mafiosi arrested including 29 of the 30 most dangerous fugitives” – and, above all, an indisputable principle: “The fight against organized crime and the protection of respectable people in a state of right they can never be opposed”.

These are the reasons that lead him to reiterate his support for the Keeper of the Seals and to shield him from the accusations of recent days. The reform, explains the Cav., “he is certainly not against the judiciary, on the contrary he is on the side of serious and correct magistrates”. “Which are the great majority”, he is keen to specify. While on the possible disagreements in the majority: “There is no political question”. “The center-right is united and it was precisely on these issues that it demonstrated a few days ago in Parliament”.

Ample space Berlusconi then dedicates it to the issue of wiretapping. “The idea that ‘there are no innocents but only guilty ones who have not yet been discovered’, as one of the protagonists of Clean Hands said, is an Orwellian nightmare”. A quote from which the Cav. draws his conclusion: “We cannot treat every citizen as if they were a suspected mafia member”, he says, bringing up the “right to privacy”. And pointing to its opponents as “the evil we want to fight”.

From justice, the discussion moves to the two major reforms that the government is studying: presidentialism (supported by Meloni) and differentiated autonomy (supported by the League and by Salvini in particular). In this case, the latter turns out to be the most complicated project for Berlusconi: so much so that his silence on the subject during the long speech he gave at Villa Gernetto last week had made some doubt his support. This time the Cav. he expresses himself, but does so with caution: “We cannot allow territorial conflicts to arise on this issue”, he warns.

On presidentialism, his words remain clearer: it must be done “with everyone’s cooperation”, the oppositions will be involved, but “they do not have a veto”. While, internationally, he relaunches the idea of ​​a European sovereign wealth fundinserting it in the same “overall reflection” in which the Mes: for the latter, according to Cav. the need for an “update, without distorting it”.

Finally, Berlusconi allows himself a last remark on the petrol station strike that began yesterday. First he defines it “mistaken”, because it “penalizes innocent citizens”. But then he seems to understand the reasons, returning to a controversy of the recent period: “Petrollers have been unjustly referred to as speculators”. Perhaps a reference to Meloni herself, who used this very term to define the category (except to backtrack shortly after). But the Cav. he prefers to remain vague, not clarifying who instigated the prosecution.