Forza Italia is increasingly a “family business”. When the founder does not think about saving the party’s accounts Silvio Berlusconi – since 2014 he has paid out almost 100 million euros out of his own pocket – his companies, closest friends, family members are involved. Barbara, Eleonora, Luigi, Marina and Pier Silvio, the sons of the Knight, they donated at the blue coffers a good 500 thousand euros in 2002, 100 thousand euros each. Sifting through the list of contributions received by the party this year and made public by law, the 50 thousand euros paid on August 2 by the ‘Finin investment finance bank stand out.
vest spa ‘based in Rome, in Largo del Nazareno. Just two months earlier, on June 14, the Biscione had donated the same amount, confirming itself as the main ‘forced lender’. Also Fininvest, a year ago, on 11 February, had written a check for 100 thousand euros, the same amount in 2020, on 3 February, and in 2019, on 15 July. For a total, to date, of 400 thousand euros.
Donations from the Berlusconi
This year, as mentioned, the five children of Berlusconi with 100 thousand euros each arrived to the rescue of FI’s finances for the first time: the eldest daughter Marina, Pier Silvio, Eleonora and Luigi made their payment last August 16th, while Barbara made her donation on the 22nd. This time Paolo, the brother of the former premier, missed the appeal, but he did not miss his contribution in the past: 100 thousand euros on May 8th of 2019 plus the granting of a security pledge of 4 million euros, as certified by the financial statements closed on 31 December of the same year. Going back in time, moreover, it turns out that Luigi, the smallest of the ‘brood’, had already contributed 100,000 euros to the cause on 21 September last year.
Cards in hand, only in 2022 did the Berlusconi family come to pay a total of 500 thousand euros. A real treasure, in times of lean post abolition of public funding for parties, but above all a plastic representation of how much the Cavaliere’s children (who remained, in fact, the sole owner of his political creature) now have within the started, starting with the management of the coffers. Launched in ’94, FI for about twenty years traveled in double figures in the polls and then underwent the overtaking first of the League, in 2018, then of the Brothers of Italy, 4 years later, to stop at the current 8 percent of latest policies thanks to the umpteenth ‘descent into the field’ of the founder.
The accounts of Forza Italia
According to the latest financial statements, closed on 31 December 2021, FI has slightly improved accounts but still in the red, with a deficit of 340,490 euros and is indebted to ‘other lenders’, or the only lender-owner who created it 28 years ago, the former premier, for over 92 million euros. All guaranteed through personal guarantees.
To weigh heavily on the finances, they say, also the unresolved problem of the defaulters, or of all those deputies, senators and regional councilors, who do not pay the dues due (900 euros per month) resulted in a cash gap of at least € 2 million, given that one in three MPs would not pay the arrears.
In particular, the statement still reads, among the contributions received from legal persons there is once again the investment finance company Fininvest spa with 100 thousand euros, and “in the memorandum accounts” it appears in the item guarantees (pledges, mortgages) to / from third parties an amount of 7 million euros relating to the pledge in securities of 3 million issued by President Berlusconi in previous years “and” to further pledges in securities for 4 million euros issued “by his brother Paolo” against the credit lines granted by a banking institution to the movement “.
Berlusconi’s children to the aid of the Forza Italia accounts: 500 thousand euros in one year