Words that sparked a lively controversy. Silvio Berlusconi, former head of the Italian government, guest on a Rai political program on Thursday night, said that the master of the Kremlin was “pushed” by his population and his entourage to invade Ukraine. “Putin found himself in a really difficult and dramatic situation,” he began, who had traveled with Vladimir Putin to Crimea after Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian province in 2014.
“A mission from the two pro-Russian republics of Donbass went to Moscow, spoke to everyone, the radios, the press, television, with people from (Putin’s) party, party ministers, and then went to see him in a delegation to tell him : “Zelensky has intensified the attacks of the Ukrainian forces against our forces on our borders. Now we have 16,000 dead. Please stand up for us because if he doesn’t, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.
According to him, Vladimir Putin was then “pressured by the Russian people, by his party, by his ministers, to participate in this special operation, as it was originally called, according to which the Russian troops were to enter and in a week meet.” kyiv, replace the Zelensky government with a government of decent people and leave within a week”.
Criticisms and justifications
In response to the controversy, Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday that they had been “simplified”, evoking an “unjustifiable” war.
“We are and will always be on the side of Europe, the United States, the West, the Atlantic Alliance (…). We are the absolute guarantors of the European and Atlantic loyalty of the next government, ”she assured on Instagram. .
The head of Forza Italia, who is running this Sunday for legislative elections in coalition with two far-right parties, Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and Matteo Salvini’s League, has been the target of much criticism in his country, but only.
The leader of the Democratic Party (PD), Enrico Letta, ranked second in the legislative elections behind Giorgia Meloni, criticized “scandalous and serious statements.”
On Twitter, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the National Assembly in France, accused Berlusconi, Meloni and Salvini of being “Putin’s puppets.”
“The consequences of this Sunday’s elections in Italy will go beyond the borders of the peninsula. What is also at stake is the unity of Europe against Russia,” he said.
For the vice president of the European Parliament, the Italian Pina Picierno (Democratic Party), Berlusconi “takes off the Atlanticist and European mask and shows the true face of the Italian right: enemy of freedom, friend of autocrats.” The Spanish socialist MEP Iratxe García Pérez, for her part, denounced “shocking comments”.
Silvio Berlusconi, for his part, received the support of the EPP (right) in the European Parliament. “Forza Italia’s position is clear: they support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s illegal war,” wrote the group to which the Italian billionaire’s party belongs on his Instagram account.
Source: BFM TV
