«Between me and Berlusconi a bitter challenge without ever denigrating us. He made great political moves»- Corriere.it

Francesco Rutelli, his first memory of Berlusconi.

«Originally there was the battle between Pannella and the radicals to defend the freedom of the antenna and the entry of this new actor into a world of total monopoly. In that season our interlocutor was especially Fedele Confalonieri».

Then there was the election of the mayor of Rome.

«And he made an unexpected statement in favor of Fini. That declaration, in fact, represented the debut of bipolarity in Italy».

How were your relations as mayor?

«I remember that he came to the Campidoglio for the 80th birthday of Alberto Sordi, whom I nominated mayor for a day. Not only was he affable and kind: I noticed that Berlusconi was much celebrated by the world of cinema, even by his left-wing exponents. For a reason you tend to forget. No one remembers that Berlusconi’s production company produced Bertolucci, Scola, Salvatores, who won the Oscar with Mediterranean, White by Nanni Moretti, and even a film by one of the leaders of anti-Berlusconism, Sabina Guzzanti. After all, Berlusconi, as publisher, with Mondadori, has printed Gomorrah by Saviano. In short, the story must be read in its entirety. I have been Berlusconi’s opponent throughout my political life, and today I want to acknowledge this to him».

In 2001 you ran for politics against Berlusconi.

«Our competition was bitter and all-round, but there was never any denigration or dossier. From me as from him. I don’t forget that the night in 1994 when Berlusconi was elected, a handful of people from the right came to my house with megaphones shouting “Rutelli, get out”, scaring my children. And for this episode you can imagine who apologized to me on behalf of Berlusconi».

Gianni Letta… And what about Berlusconi in politics?

«He made a great operation: after the fall of his first government, caused by Bossi, he managed to impose the code of unity on the Italian centre-right. So they stayed together even when they fought and even hated each other. And the legitimacy of the post-MSI right was also important, which made a positive contribution to the evolution of our political system».

Quarrelsome but united, unlike the centre-left…

“That’s the point. When I opposed Berlusconi in 2001, everyone assumed the game was lost. I began my campaign at minus 12, minus 15, because the centre-left had fallen apart: Bertinotti presented himself alone, Di Pietro too, ditto D’Antoni, even the radicals didn’t support me. But in the end I got to about half a million votes behind».

After the elections you met for the consultations that Berlusconi held as prime minister in charge. What did he tell her?

“He was very sincere. He pulled out the polls and said, “Look, one more week and you’re going to win the election.” I don’t know if that was true, but I have to say that I experienced the defeat, in hindsight, without much regret. If we had won the elections in 2001 with the decisive votes of Rifondazione, on 11 September, that is, a few months later, the government would have fallen because the extreme left component would never have accepted Italy’s decision to commit itself militarily against terrorism fundamentalist. How would he bring down our government on this, in 2008».

There is controversy over the national mourning for Berlusconi.

«National mourning seems obvious to me: he was prime minister four times. Indeed, a lesson in sobriety was also given: Berlusconi could have had the funeral home in the Senate from which he had been banned and instead everything happened in Milan with an appropriate style ».

As a political leader, would he have gone to the funeral or would he have done like Conte?

«Of course yes, I would have gone. The posthumous beatification was wrong, but the rejection of a protagonist of these 30 years was wrong”.

In a nutshell, two merits and two demerits of Berlusconi.

«On the European and international level, it was a merit to appoint Emma Bonino and Mario Monti as European commissioners. Another merit? Pushing to bring Mario Draghi to the presidency of the ECB. His ungenerous political opponents forget this. Mistakes? Definitely the war in Iraq, as the Americans themselves later recognized. I remember that at the time Pope Wojtyla told me: “So the wars of religion will return. They are irresponsible.” And it was a grave mistake to place ourselves in a relationship of dependence on energy sources from Putin”.

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