friendship of Peoples

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi forced the resignation of Deputy Minister of Tourism and member of the Northern League party Stefano Stefani, who last week made sharply negative statements about German tourists. Because of this resignation, Berlusconi's government was almost on the verge of a split: the prime minister with great difficulty managed to persuade his coalition partners from the Northern League to remain in the government.
The name of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been on the front pages of European publications for several weeks now. After Italy became the chairman of the European Union, Mr. Berlusconi provoked a serious scandal at the very first meeting of the European Parliament, which led to tension in German-Italian relations. He made a caustic joke about German MP Martin Schulz, calling him Capo (a character from an Italian comedy, a concentration camp guard), after Mr. Schulz reproached the Italian prime minister for the fact that he needed the immunity he had won from his own parliament to evade from criminal prosecution (many European parliamentarians were holding signs saying “The law is the same for everyone” during his speech), which provoked the head of the EU to make an offensive statement.
Chancellor Schröder demanded a public apology. Mr. Berlusconi called him and said something that Gerhard Schröder interpreted as an apology, and the Italian Prime Minister himself interpreted as an explanation. When the conflict seemed to be over, Stefano Stefani, a member of the right-wing Northern League party, part of the government coalition, decided to morally support the prime minister. On the pages of his party's press organ, he expressed outrage at the German occupation of Italian beaches during the summer season and called German tourists "monotonous, hyper-nationalist blondes."
The reaction to this publication was very stormy: the most popular German publication Bild came out with the headline “We demand an apology!”, and Chancellor Schröder suggested that the Italian Prime Minister dismiss Mr. Stefani and promised that he would not go on vacation to Italy (he usually vacations in the suburbs of Urbino ). The administrations of the cities of Urbino and Rimini decided to present a bill to the Berlusconi government, demanding compensation for losses that could result from the outflow of German tourists. The authorities of the resort towns also demanded the resignation of Stefano Stefani, and signs with apologies in German appeared in many Italian hotels.
The main supporter of Mr. Stefani's resignation in Italy's coalition government was Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, leader of the National Alliance, another right-wing party in the government. Mr Feeney hopes to weaken the Northern League's position in the cabinet in order to strengthen his own. The other day he said in an interview with the most influential newspaper in Italy, Corriere della Sera, that the ruling coalition would survive without the Northern League and its leader Umberto Bossi (in this case, the Italian prime minister would essentially be a hostage to Gianfranco Fini, since he would not be able to balance between the two right-wing members of his cabinet). Mr. Bossi, in turn, promised to leave Berlusconi’s cabinet if Gianfranco Fini strengthens.
As a result, the prime minister, having experienced pressure both from European partners and from within, forced Mr. Stefani to resign. At the same time, in order to convince his allies from the Northern League to remain in the government, the prime minister specially flew from Rome to Milan, where he met privately with Umberto Bossi. After this meeting, Mr. Bossi announced that he would remain in the government for now. However, as many observers note, the struggle for political influence between Gianfranco Fini and Umberto Bossi will only intensify, which threatens the Berlusconi government with the most dire consequences.
ERNEST Kommersant-Sultanov

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 121/P dated July 14, 2003, p. 11

Italy surrendered to Germany