Italian political great Silvio Berlusconi is honored with a state funeral. Around 2000 guests from politics, business, sport and society are expected to attend the funeral service for the politician and former prime minister who died at the age of 86 in the world-famous Milan Cathedral. Among them are President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and almost all members of her cabinet.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani from Qatar and Iraqi President Abdul Latif Raschid have also announced that they will be mourning. The EU Commission is represented by Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni. CSU politician Manfred Weber arrives as head of the European People’s Party (EPP), which also includes Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Most EU countries are represented by their ambassadors in Italy, with Viktor Elbling representing Germany.
About 20,000 Berlusconi supporters and other mourners are expected on the Duomo Square in front of the Cathedral in Milan. Two large screens were set up for them.
State funeral for Silvio Berlusconi met with criticism
Berlusconi was the most influential and influential politician in Italy in recent decades. The law stipulates that, as a former prime minister, he will receive a state funeral paid for by the taxpayer.
However, national mourning on the day of the funeral is unusual. In the past three decades, only two Prime Ministers have received this honor: Giovanni Leone and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who were also Presidents before their deaths. The two chambers of Parliament in Rome have canceled all voting for this week. Berlusconi was a member of the Senate until his death.
“In my opinion, national mourning for such a divisive person as Silvio Berlusconi is inappropriate,” criticized Rosy Bindi, long-time leader of the Social Democrats, in a television interview. When he made his political debut in 1994, Berlusconi brought the Alleanza Nazionale, which was rooted in fascism, and the separatists of what was then the Northern League into government and made them politically acceptable.
The government has also largely grounded its work for three days. In parliament, meetings and votes were even canceled for around a week. “What an exaggeration, completely misplaced,” said former Minister and EU Commissioner Emma Bonino in the newspaper “La Repubblica”.
Critics recalled that even after the mafia’s brutal bombings in 1992 on lawyers Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino or the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Aldo Moro by terrorists in 1978, parliaments were convened. The headline in the newspaper La Stampa was that it was “sadness that divides”.
The fact that the government declared Wednesday a national day of mourning with half-mast flags on public buildings is a novelty after the death of a former prime minister. Usually this happens after major disasters with many victims. Many supporters, companions and coalition partners honored Berlusconi as one of the most important men in the country in recent decades. His opponents see it differently. “We will not take part in any canonization,” said deputy leader of the Social Democrats, Chiara Gribaudo.