There’s that classic car story. A 1937 Lancia Astura that Silvio Berlusconi received as a gift for his 80th birthday on 29 September 2016. According to the newspapers, the idea was from Niccolo Ghedini. A fan of historic vehicles who knows the Forza Italia leader well. Ghedini, Italian senator and personal lawyer of the former Prime Minister, has recently completed his birthday: on 22 December he made 58, mostly spent between courtrooms and political buildings. “I have a degree in law, but I would have liked to have done agriculture as well. I wouldn’t have minded working on one of our farms, producing oil or wine ”. The countryside around Padua, where Ghedini was born and where he lives with his wife and child, can wait. On March 4 there is a vote for policies and Ghedini, as guarantor of the center-right, and to work together with the other loyalists of Berlusconi to identify allies and candidates. THE CASE
Ghedini, for Berlusconi, is a trusted advisor. The man who explains the laws to him and who also gives him bad news. Like the sentence for the Mediaset case in 2013. Ghedini said he picked up the phone and heard an incredulous voice. “Berlusconi always reacts like this. It is normal for an innocent person who has a clear conscience ”. Berlusconi, for Ghedini, and a friend. “Our relationship goes beyond, far beyond friendship commonly understood. Because I defend the honor and freedom of this friend, innocent every time, whom I love. Very good”. As often happens in large meetings, it all started by chance. “In 1998. I defended a journalist from the Fininvest group on the recommendation of Gaetano Pecorella, who was national president of the criminal chambers when I was secretary. It was he who pointed out to me. The group then asked me for pro veritate opinions. I gave them, and the second request was to defend President Berlusconi in a single trial. I accepted with enthusiasm. There was acquittal, even if after years “. QUOTES
For many, Ghedini is the bad guy. “This dimension, the bad one, is difficult to sustain. I am a liberal and I play politics because I think I can contribute with my ideas to make our country more civil and dignified ”. In October 2016, Ghedini was the most absent senator from the benches of Palazzo Madama. The Corriere della Sera went under him. “I, every day, and even several times a day, hear from President Berlusconi. And he, in agreement with the group leader in the Senate of Forza Italia,Paolo Romani , gave me the opportunity to do politics outside Parliament. An activity that, evidently, is judged useful ”, I reply Ghedini. And then, for him, the exercise of the vote in the classroom and a sort of theater. “The parliamentarians, who very often do not even know what they are voting for, just raise their finger, diligently press the button and then go back to dozing, or to read the newspaper on the iPad, to write text messages, to call. That electronic vote is a political fiction “. A good quote for sites specialized in aphorisms, where Ghedini’s best-known phrases are listed together with the maxims of Marx and Gandhi, Einaudi and Freud. NO LIVING ROOMS, NO HORSES
“Keep in mind the name of this boy: his name is Niccolo Ghedini and he will lead the way”. It was 1988 and the prophecy on the bright future of the then 29-year-old Ghedini belonged to Piero Longo , another lawyer for Berlusconi and a member of parliament from Fi. The man who also shared an envelope with four 9-caliber bullets with Ghedini addressed to their law firm. It was February 2014 and Ghedini was already a familiar face both in politics and in the judiciary. One who participated in talk shows out of duty and not out of choice. “I don’t like going there to play that role, and I don’t like that ring where they call you just because they want to tear you apart.” In this case, better a guest in Porta a Porta, “where confrontation is possible”, rather than come face to face with Marco Travaglio, “Who only tells what he likes and what suits him”. Ghedini, outside of work, has only one hobby: “Work. I think it’s lucky. I don’t go to salons, I don’t know the so-called worldliness. I don’t go to the theater, I don’t ski, I don’t swim, I don’t go horseback riding. When I’m not in Arcore or Palazzo Grazioli, I go home to Padua ”. The closer to March 4, the more Ghedini will be committed to Rome to form the coalition of his leader, the man of whom the lawyer knows almost everything. Certainly, as a connoisseur of valves and pistons, Ghedini will know which car model Berlusconi’s father owned: a 1937 Lancia Astura.
