Who is Giovanni Toti, Berlusconi’s former dolphin who launched a giant mortar on the Thames

Rise (and decline) of the governor of Liguria: the rise from Mediaset to Forza Italia. The unhealthy passion for geographical gaffes

ROME – An enormous floating mortar, parading on a barge, at sunset, on the Thames. To tell the world that pesto, with all the hashtags involved, is a masterpiece. Other than pizza, Liguria state of mind. An expanding region that Giovanni Toti began to expand at will with the annexation of Novi Ligure. Piedmont staggered, he, the Viareggio native, as a very strong man of image, rode out the gaffe. And it relaunched with Molise, a land of lakes and rivers, but not of the sea.

Toti is a man to be told in flashes. Gaffes are folklore. One flash after another, one electrocution at a time: from Mediaset to governor, a pyrotechnic journey. Now he ended up under house arrest in a story of alleged bribes, in Genoa. In 2020 he had a tough time in the media. He wrote in the midst of the pandemic that “as much as every single victim of Covid 19 pains us, we must take this fact into account: yesterday alone among the 25 deaths in Liguria, 22 were patients very old. Mostly retired people, who are not indispensable to the country’s productive effort but must be protected”. Resources fell with enormous productive effort.

Toti’s career is a never-constant climb. In 2014 he ousted Angelino Alfano in the Forza Italia hierarchy, on the eve – as now – of a European election. Raised and well-fed in Mediaset, married to the deputy director of Videonews, Syria Magri, sanctified by his role and lineage at Tg4. In 2012 he took over from Emilio Fede. He had arrived there on the run: in 2006 Liberitutti for Rete4, in 2007 deputy director of the Mediaset press office, then Lucignolo and Live, in 2010 he was director of Studio Aperto. One scalp after another, the proximity to the Knight takes a spiral path, ever narrower. Enter the infamous magic circle of Arcore, with Mariarosaria Rossi, Francesca Pascale and Debora Bergamini.

Toti is a vote-seeker: between 2014 and 2015 he became an MEP and then president of the Liguria Region. It is the electoral pinnacle of the “very moderate”, with the finish line one step away: the Cavaliere is caught up in legal troubles, he becomes national coordinator of Forza Italia. The last bolt is missing.

And instead in 2019 he started his own business, more or less. He says that “Berlusconi wants to command alone” andlaunches “Let’s change!”, the orange movement like only the revolution of Mayor De Magistris in Naples. It’s a tear that remains with him. In 2020 he won his second mandate in the Liguria Region, the following year he planned a third pole, anticipating Renzi and Calenda, with the mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro. He calls it “Courage Italy”. Which for a former Forza Italia patrol is a claim of subtle irony.

With Draghi’s resignation, Toti allies himself with the UDC and Noi with Italy for the polls. Last November Meloni returned to the orbit, somewhat surreptitiously, as president of the national council of Noi Moderati. The judicial coup is the last bolt of lightning in the clear sky of Genoa. The barge with the mortar is now offshore. The sunset remains.