London – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a media mogul with a TV and radio empire as well as a politician, surrendered to the power of social media and debuted on TikTok three weeks before the elections. He wants to return to the Senate.
Wearing a more formal suit and tie than TikTok’s casual model at his desk, he starts the first video with an animated “hello guys” and sparks controversy by saying he’ll call the platform TikTok Tak “to stay more complete.” “.
The current 85-year-old MEP, in a clear attempt to win the votes of the youth, has promised to talk about current events and also to “seek maximum intimacy using jokes as a tool” because they are therapeutic.
Berlusconi wants to win over young voters on TikTok
Loved by some and hated by others, the leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party, which has a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at US$5.7 billion, is divided.
But it’s a must watch, with posts exceeding 4.2 million views and nearly 500,000 channel subscribers in three days.
At a time when the country has lowered the minimum voting age for senators from 25 to 18, it’s far from negligible success. This means a potential increase of over 4 million voters.
In the video below, in his own way, he used a joke to talk about politics, and Joe Biden recounted the story of a plane carrying Vladimir Putin, Pope Francis with an assistant, and Berlusconi himself, who introduced himself as the “smartest politician.” World.”
The plane is running out of fuel, but it has no parachute. As the passengers argue over who should be saved (the strongest or the kindest, among other qualities), the “smartest politician in the world,” or perhaps the smartest, grabs one of the parachutes and jumps off without the passengers, others notice.
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@silvio.berlusconi Hail ragazzi, ci siamo incontrati per la prima volta su #TikTok, como mi riguarda avrei preference che Tik Tok Tak for chiamare. Cosi is a più! I saw ho detto che vi avrei intrattenuti su argomenti che podeno riguardarvi da vicino. But I thought I could preserve and adapt the gli altri bisogna tende alla massima cordialità. One degli strumenti per arrival, one farlo sono le #barzellette, perchè sono terapeutiche. Well, we’ll think about the program. Tik Tok Tak! #silvioberlusconi #berlusconi #forzaitlia???????? ♬ suono original – Silvio Berlusconi
Finally, Berlusconi concludes by demanding a vote:
“Be careful when you’re in the ocean so everyone can have a parachute. Now let’s try to put a parachute in our Italy that’s not doing so well right now, but let it go well. Actually, we’ll make it work better.” And he ends with a nod: “Tik Tok Tak!”.
Alliance with Berlusconi’s party leads in polls in Italy
Berlusconi’s activity on TikTok promises to be intense.
In three days, he released five videos, some of which featured snippets of his participation in a talk show on one of the TV channels he owned.
In pop star style, the Italian politician is smiling with delight as the audience applauds enthusiastically.
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@silvio.berlusconi Tra pochi minuti, verrò Interview with Paolo Del Debbio, su #rete4 ♬ suono original – Silvio Berlusconi
In each of his posts, Berlusconi appeals to new voters and promises to remove taxes from companies that hire young people.
Italy goes to the polls on September 25. The elections were held after the resignation of former prime minister Mario Draghi.
Polls point to a centre-right alliance formed by Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini’s Liga, Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and two other minor parties as favorites to win the election. With 48.2% of voting intentions can secure a majority in both the House and Senate.
Also Read | Reporters Without Borders: 2.7 million tweets attacked the press in the second week of the election campaign
Despite the sympathy on TikTok, Berlusconi has a history of scandal and controversy. He owns the Mediaset group, Italy’s largest media conglomerate, which competes directly with the state-owned RAI.
Known as “Il Cavaliere”, the former prime minister led four Italian governments in the period between the two terms. 1994 and 2011.
In 2011, he took part in the scandal called “bunga bunga”, which involved parties involving minors in his mansion.
He was elected to the Senate in 2013, but was expelled in August of that year after serving a four-year prison sentence for media group-related tax evasion. Due to his age, his sentence was commuted to community service.
The sentence prevented him from running for six years, but he did not give up on his political career and was eventually elected MEP in 2019.
He contracted Covid in September 2020 and was hospitalized several times from then until mid-2021 for various reasons, including heart problems and infection sequelae.
However, he does not cease to be reintroduced in domestic politics: he threatened to run for the Italian presidency in January 2022, but withdrew his candidacy two days before the election, and was eventually re-elected President Sérgio Matarella.
Now 85, he has announced that he will seek to return to the Senate in the early elections on September 25.
The “Cavaliere” party has increased its chances of election after its party joined the alliance led by the far-right group Fratelli d’Italia, which spreads the slogan “God, Fatherland and Family” and is expected to elect Giorgia Meloni (former Youth Minister). Berlusconi) as the first woman to lead the Italian government.
The entry on TikTok shows that the media man is not stuck in the past. In the opening video, he calculated the audience he could reach:
“You have 5 million on this platform and 60% of you are under 30. […].
The Forza Italia leader said he will use the platform to tell young people how he can transform Italy “a country that gives him new opportunities and a chance to realize his dreams”.
TikTok on the radar of politicians like Berlusconi
Berlusconi is not the only Italian politician to use TikTok to reach young people. Also last week, Matteo Renzi, the country’s youngest prime minister, debuted on the platform.
Renzi leads Italia Viva, which is part of a center alliance with Azione. two parties advocatesm the continuity of the reformist agenda from Draghi and proposing a “third way” to centre-right and centre-left coalitions (According to Italian Sky, with 48.2% and 29.3% voting intentions, respectively).
For now, Renzi’s centrist bloc appears to be only 4.2%, but his strategy is precisely to grow by stealing voters from Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, and the way is through social networks.
Italy is one of the countries where the news audience migrates the most to digital media due to the high penetration of social networks.
For the first time in Italy, a digital channel has become the most popular channel for obtaining information, according to a 2022 annual survey by the Reuters Institute for Journalism Research in Oxford.
With 21%, Fanpage outperformed TV stations, the main Italian news agency (ANSA) and the most important newspapers such as La Repubblica or Corriere della Sera.
All over the world, young people are the ones who consume the news the most through social networks, not always through the press channels.
Influencers reinforce themselves as sources of information. In this scenario, the movement of Berlusconi and others, who are breaking into networks to connect with young voters, becomes a trend.
Also Read | Users of “young” networks like Snapchat and TikTok prefer to inform themselves through influencers.
source: Noticias
