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Some express dissent over day of mourning for Berlusconi

Ex minister Bindi among those to say move inappropriate

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 14 - Several opposition politicians have expressed dissent about the decision by Premier Giorgia Meloni's government to declare a day of national mourning for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday, when his funeral takes place at Milan Cathedral.
    "A State funeral was due, but the day of national mourning was decided on by a government that Berlusconi helped to create," said ex-minister Rosy Bindi, a member of the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and a former politician for the once-dominant but now defunct Christian Democracy (DC) party.
    "The government has risked exposing the country to division.
    "A day of national morning had never been proclaimed for a premier (unless they went on to become president) and it has always been done to unite the country, not divide it.
    "It is held for the victims of bombings, of terrorism, of natural disasters.
    "Those who should be called on to adopt discretion in the face of the death are on his political side, because piety and sharing the pain does not justify sanctifying a person who had merits but also had great limitations that continue to have an impact on the country".
    Several other PD politicians also said declaring a day of national mourning was inappropriate although the party's leader, Elly Schlein, is attending the funeral.
    But ex-premier and opposition 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giusppe Conte is not gong and neither are Italian Left (SI) leader Nicola Fratoianni or Green chief Angelo Bonelli.
    Paolo Barelli, the Lower House whip for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said those criticising the decision to hold a day of national mourning were "discordant voices" that wanted to created a row out of nothing.
    "I think we are only realising now the greatness of this figure," Barelli added. (ANSA).
   

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