The parable of Giovanni Toti: from Berlusconi's loyalist to political break-up
The career of Giovanni Toti, from Mediaset journalist to President of the Liguria Region, up to the break with Silvio Berlusconi
3' min read
3' min read
Journalist, news director at Mediaset and loyalist, for years, of Silvio Berlusconi , of whom he was also a sort of 'dauphin', Giovanni Toti also held the post of Forza Italia coordinator in 2019 (along with Mara Carfagna), before the resounding break with the former premier the same year, when Berlusconi excluded him from the party's presidential coordination. At that time, Toti left Forza Italia and, among other things, devoted himself, from the seat of president of the Liguria Region, where he proved to have broad electoral consensus, to creating a political entity that could bring him back to national prominence.
The project, however, did not succeed and Noi moderati (a coalition party formed with Maurizio Lupi's Noi per l'Italia, Udc and Coraggio Italia, of the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro), obtained a result far below expectations in the 2022 political elections, settling at around 2% in both the Chamber and the Senate.
Born in Viareggio in 1968, Toti grew up in Marina di Massa, in a family of hoteliers. Since 2001, he has lived in the municipality of Ameglia, in the province of La Spezia, where his parents and family also reside.
A career in Mediaset
The career of the regional president, arrested for corruption today, 7 May 2024, began in 1996, when he signed his first contract for Mediaset; the following year he made his debut at Studio Aperto. In 2007 he became deputy head of the press office of Mediaset and, since then, the rise has been continuous. In 2009 he became co-director of Studio Aperto and the following year he became its director, replacing Mario Giordano. In March 2012 he also became director of Tg4, succeeding Emilio Fede and, at the same time, keeping the direction of Studio Aperto. He remained director of the two news programmes until 2014, when he entered full-time politics.
The entry into politics
.His entry into the political arena dates back to January 2014, when Berlusconi appointed him as Forza Italia's political advisor, ahead of that year's European elections. He was then a candidate in the European elections as Forza Italia's main candidate in the North-West Italy constituency, which includes Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta. He was the first of the party's elected representatives in the north-west.
