The death of Silvio Berlusconi creates uncertainty for his party

Silvio Berlusconi had a political career of rare longevity. He first became prime minister in 1994, when Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand and others who have long since passed into history led Europe’s powerhouses. Almost 30 years later, he still headed a party with significant parliamentary representation, having come and gone as prime minister in four administrations. His on June 12th will thus inevitably alter Italy’s political landscape. The likelihood is that the changes will benefit Italy’s current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. But not without exposing her to new risks.Most obviously, Mr Berlusconi’s departure from politics removes a source of intermittent, though acute, discomfort. Italy’s longest-serving post-war prime minister had an ego of pharaonic dimensions. He never truly reconciled himself to the fact that, following last year’s general election, his party, Forza Italia, had become part of a coalition government in which, for the first time, . Even before Ms Meloni took up her new post in October, he had embarrassed her by slyly making public a list of characteristics—”patronising, bossy, arrogant and offensive”— that he later, and unconvincingly, denied were hers.