A political meteor that could have changed Italy is ending his career

Gianfranco Fini was an Italian politician who could have changed some history. Instead, these days, he faces, perhaps, the final chapter of his political and public life. The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested an eight-year sentence; we will soon find out if the judges will support this request. Pero, who was Gianfranco Fini, was the biggest disappointment in Italian politics.

Fini came from the right-wing party, MSI. He has a very long history behind him, but he understood that when communism ended, the right had to change as well, and in 1995 he transformed MSI into Alleanza Nazionale, a more modern Western party. This immediately allied with Silvio Berlusconi and even came to government positions, always in a secondary position to the party of the world-renowned TV entrepreneur.

There was a time when Gianfranco Fini seemed destined to become a leader who would change Italian history as a necessary ally of Silvio Berlusconi. The “Patto del Predellino” was the first post-2000 example of an alliance of the center with the right in Europe, and the merger between Forza Italia and Alleanza Nazionale could have not only governed but truly changed Italian political history.
A strong government would not have been blackmailable in the 2011 crisis. But things turned out differently. Pride and easy-goingness destroy men and blind them. He began to converse not with friends but with those who had a vested interest in bringing down the government of which he was a part. The center-right opponents and the strong powers deluded him of The misplaced trust and then the set of intrigues that always surround political life in Rome surely played a role in what then happened.

Fini thought he was able to retire Berlusconi because someone made him believe this, and he did not have the humility and lucidity to stay in place. His break with Silvio Berlusconi materialized in 2010, when Fini left the People of Freedom (PdL) and founded the Future and Freedom for Italy (FLI) party on July 30, 2010. This movement was officially founded on February 13, 2011. The 2013 Italian general election marked a turning point for Fini and his political end, as the FLI obtained a sufficient percentage of votes to guarantee him a seat in Parliament, ending his 30-year parliamentary career.

With the political glory over, the legal troubles began. The Monte Carlo house affair came to light in 2012 and was a scandal linked to the management of his former party’s large assets that resonated widely in the press and put an end to any hopes he had of returning to politics.
Gianfranco Fini has been charged with money laundering in connection with the purchase of an apartment in Monte Carlo. Alleanza Nazionale was initially given this property by Countess Annamaria Colleoni, but it is thought that Giancarlo Tulliani, Fini’s partner’s brother, acquired it in 2008 using offshore businesses. The apartment was then resold in 2015, generating a significant profit. Rome prosecutors have requested an 8-year prison sentence for Fini, while 9 years have been requested for his partner Elisabetta Tulliani, 10 years for his brother Giancarlo Tulliani, and 5 years for his father Sergio Tulliani. Initially, the proceedings included other charges, such as criminal conspiracy, but these were declared time-barred.

However the trial ends, Gianfranco Fini has ended his political career. As the election of Giorgia Meloni shows, a right-wing politician with lucidity and some sense of proportion could have become prime minister in Italy. The problem is that he was not the right man.