Urbano Cairo "takes the field" like his mentor Berlusconi, the mystery surrounding the poll commissioned to test his popularity

Is Urbano Cairo ready to " enter the field " like his entrepreneurial mentor Silvio Berlusconi , for whom he was personal assistant and a young manager between Publitalia '80 and Mondadori? The current president of Cairo Communication (with which he controls La7 ) and RCS MediaGroup (thus controlling the Corriere della Sera ) is in fact tempted by politics, evidently with the idea that there is room for a new party outside the two poles of center-right and center-left.

Il Fatto Quotidiano wrote about it today, explaining how the 68-year-old Milanese entrepreneur , owner of Torino, has already commissioned a survey from the company Swg , which collaborates with La7 with its usual Monday evening polls on the news program directed by Enrico Mentana, to verify his level of popularity among Italians.

According to Thomas Mackinson and Tommaso Rodano, the results of these polls are not yet available. Marco Travaglio's newspaper, however, has been informed of the questions posed by SWG. The first is this: "Are you interested in a new party that promotes serious politics, with new faces, and is attentive to the impoverished middle class and vulnerable groups?" The second question is this: "Do you think Urbano Cairo would be suitable to lead a political force like the one described above?" The third question is this: "On a scale of 0 to 100, how likely are you to vote for a new party like the one described above in the next general election, if it were led by Urbano Cairo?" The fourth question is this: "If this new party existed, which of the following lists would you most likely vote for in the general election?" Finally, the fifth question: "Which coalition would you choose between a center-left one led by Elly Schlein, a center-right one with Giorgia Meloni, and an independent coalition with Cairo's new party, local civic lists, and Cairo as prime ministerial candidate?" This suggests Cairo's intention is to position himself as the leader of the perennial "Third Pole."

On the other hand, Cairo has always identified himself in a liberal centrist area, showing sympathy for Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda in the recent past and revealing in a 2024 interview that he voted for Benigno Zaccagnini's Christian Democracy.

But there's a major problem. Cairo himself, contacted by Il Fatto Quotidiano, denied commissioning the survey: "It's incorrect information. I didn't commission anything at all and I'm not aware of any surveys." So who was behind SWG's research? "It must have been someone who truly cares about him," was the ironic response of the two journalists who wrote the article.