Angelino Alfano may have changed the future of Italian politics by leading the internal party revolt that thwarted Silvio Berlusconi’s attempt to bring down the country’s coalition government.
Few thought he had it in him. The 42-year-old former Christian Democrat from Sicily was considered so loyal to Berlusconi that his name had become almost a by-word for subservience.
“Alfano Betrays” screamed the front page banner headline of Berlusconi’s family newspaper Il Giornale yesterday. It seemed to sum up Berlusconi’s shock that his long-time protege had turned against him like Brutus in a Shakespearian tragedy.
Chubby, balding and affable, Alfano has always presented himself as the moderate and reassuring face of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party (PDL), which has become increasingly divided into so-called hawks and doves.
“Alfano is good but he lacks that extra something,” Berlusconi said of his uncharismatic party secretary last year, in comments that have come back to haunt him.
Many commentators were sceptical when rumours began this week that a group of PDL dissidents intent on defying Berlusconi’s orders to bring down Enrico Letta’s government wanted Alfano to lead them, but this time the eternal number two broke the link with the leader who had made his career.
“Today Alfano proved he does have that extra something and he can be the leader of a new centre-right in Italy,” a senior PDL lawmaker told Reuters, asking not to be named.
A lawyer by training, Alfano joined Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) movement in the mid-1990s and quickly developed a power base in Sicilian local politics. Little was seen of him on the national stage until Berlusconi named him justice minister in his fourth government in 2008.
He was considered Berlusconi’s most loyal lieutenant
That ministry was a crucial one for Berlusconi, who was already embroiled in a series of court cases.
Alfano led fiercely contested efforts to save Berlusconi, including a bill giving legal immunity to the prime minister and other top institutional figures, which was finally thrown out by the constitutional court.
Alfano, a solid TV debater who seldom loses his cool, became one of Italy’s best-known politicians, but as his star rose nationally he also began to make enemies within an increasingly divided PDL.
He remained loyal to Berlusconi when the co-founder of the PDL, Gianfranco Fini, led a revolt in 2010 which weakened Berlusconi’s government but eventually condemned Fini and his followers to the political wilderness.
Alfano was never considered either strong or independent and when Berlusconi named him PDL national secretary in 2011 it was widely seen as an appointment of the most obedient and unthreatening lieutenant he could find. It remains to be seen if Alfano’s defiance of Berlusconi will allow him to become a leader in his own right.
Critics point out that he only made the move when Berlusconi was at his weakest and facing a ban from parliament.
Yet whatever the future holds for Alfano, he has probably hastened the 77-year-old Berlusconi’s political demise.