published an article by Guardian of November 16, 2010 (translation from Italy from abroad): How does
Silvio Berlusconi to be still in power?
It is becoming difficult to see what else needs to do Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister, to be evicted from power. In many countries one of the dozens of scandals in which he was involved was sufficient to put an end to his political career. Each time a new scandal explodes, the more sordid and unbelievable the previous, do you think will not be able to get away again. May fail, hoping to survive a ruling that accused him of bribing a lawyer in exchange for false testimony, or to shake off the mountain of evidence to the effect that regularly organizes orgies with his escort for a fee in private residences and officers. And yet, there he was, still in power, still leader of one of the most important and rich culture of Europe. After all these years, is still totally amazing. I'm sure you'll
've heard all this, but it is worth remembering how many scandals he has survived so far. There were the endless corruption trials that have led to a confusing series of convictions and acquittals. For anyone who has followed the story of the acquisition of the publishing giant Mondadori, or David Mills case, there is more than enough smoke to suspect that there is also a fire with all the trimmings. Berlusconi was convicted of perjury for denying that he was part of a sinister right-wing Masonic lodge, P2 was not satisfied with the results taken by democratic politics.
There have been repeated rumors of incredible closeness to the Mafia during the 70 [Berlusconi] gave work to a stable boy named Vittorio Mangano, a mobster convicted of murder, drug trafficking and extortion. Berlusconi has never explained why a businessman in Milan as he had taken such a gentleman. It has never even responded satisfactorily to one of the greatest mysteries of his incredible career, who is providing huge amounts of capital needed for the construction of its residential properties in the suburbs of Milan almost 40 years ago? For a long time there was a suspicion that the money sent through a bank, the Bank Rasin, where his father worked and in which several Sicilian godfathers deposit their "savings". In fact, a of his closest allies, Marcello Dell'Utri, was recently sentenced to seven years of collusion with the Mafia. Several excellent repented have sprung up in recent years to claim that he saw Cosa Nostra Forza Italy, Berlusconi's party, just like the Trojan horse through which path to power. The fact that Berlusconi has won 100% of the seats allocated by elected in Sicily in 2001 says a lot about what the horse into the Cosa Nostra who chose to crawl.
And then, of course, there are prostitutes. The Italians are much less puritanical of us about certain things, and sex scandals as these are rare. The active sex life has become a Berlusconi political issue because it is not much sex, but because it is said to have told so many lies about what is going to make it look like Walter Mitty a servant of the truth [NdT character from a story by James Thurber known for his fantasy]. When it was photographed at the eighteenth birthday of Letizia, people began to wonder how he managed to finish with a teenager to attend the Prime Minister and why call him "Papi." Berlusconi's response was that his real father was an old friend, since he worked as a driver for Craxi, Berlusconi's political godfather during the 80 who fled into exile in Tunisia to escape allegations of corruption. The history of the driver, of course, was a lie. So how did he know it? Nobody knows.
It also seems that Berlusconi has offered to businessmen such as Bari Giampaolo Tarantino of the facilities in their business in exchange for the supply of women. Is said to have interfered with the judicial release from prison by a 17 year old Moroccan girl named Karima El-Mahroug - aka Ruby Heartbreaker - saying that it was the grandson of the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Ruby described a game called Bunga Bunga orgiastic sex, a word that now no longer leave the Italian vocabulary. The future ex-wife of Mr Berlusconi said he attended and minors who need help. The divorce proceedings between Veronica Lario Berlusconi will end soon, allontanadolo even more by good advice and wise supervision of a spouse.
In the words of an opposition leader, "the problem now is not legal or political, but psychiatric." But all those stories pale to become insignificant when renewed allegations of adolescent girls who smoked drugs in Sardinia , transported there on Berlusconi's private jet. One of those interviewed by prosecutors said they had received from him € 10,000 in an envelope after sexual intercourse, and that he had also phoned her mother to ask her what she could do for her. A touch of class.
Until recently, the stories of sex did not appear able to tarnish the reputation of Berlusconi. Many Italians admire and envy his success with women, if you can call it when you pay 10,000 bucks each time. Many of its voters seem to appreciate the fact that their leader has blood boiling and that does not hide it. E 'denotes the fact that it was one of his magazines to highlight the first story about "Berlusconi and his harem," three years ago, seemed to know that having young girls on his knee would not only increase his approval ratings . But that attitude of indifference seems to have changed. E 'changed in part because it seems likely that he is repeatedly threatening the security and partly because his eye for women seems to determine who gets a job, others a contract, and also who goes into politics (as former showgirl Nicole Mine). And as far as the Italian electorate is relaxed about sex, it is able to recognize hypocrisy when they see it. Last week, as they were coming out the latest revelations, the government of Berlusconi announced that prostitution on the streets would become illegal. It 'was like a drunken headmaster had told their students that they could not drink Coca Cola.
But most importantly, attitudes have changed, because Italians admired style, charm and elegance, especially in the field of seduction, and Berlusconi has repeatedly appeared as nothing more than a depraved old feudal and a bigot and senile. Visiting L'Aquila after the earthquake, 18 months ago, turned to a city councilman, saying: "May I caress you?". He gives the impression that we truly believe in Droit de seigneur, the ritual of medieval origin, according to which the king had the first choice on the virgins of his kingdom. He said one of its female MPs. Berlusconi's defense for his weakness for female flesh ("better a passion for beautiful girls to be gay") was seen as a comment just plain stupid, vulgar and offensive that it would create a scandal in itself in any normal country.
But despite all that Berlusconi made, the crisis has reached a critical stage in part because of what did not. Residents of the Eagle are still living in the ruins of their homes 18 months after the terrible earthquake. Despite all its promises, Berlusconi's government has been almost completely absent. (E 'denotes the fact that the day of the earthquake of manufacturers have been recorded by investigators while laughing at the thought of how much money they could earn on the tragedy, and that the Head of Civil Protection, the man responsible for reconstruction, is said to have received "rehearse" late at night by a Brazilian masseuse provided by those manufacturers.)
Only this week a central part of Pompeii has fallen to the ground, yet another victim of the incompetence and neglect of government. It appears that parts of Italy are literally in ruins, while all that is concerned about the great leader is to mate. He has transformed his country into a joke (Italy has become the laughing stock of Europe): Even as the British comedy Harry and Paul and Bremner, Bird and Fortune have fixed space to tease. There are so many smoking guns that surround that often looks like a war zone. How the hell do I still be in power, and how the hell will the Italians to get rid of him?
The most obvious answer, which is also the most convincing, is the simple fact that he and his family own a large part of the Italian media: three national TV networks, a giant publishing house, a major newspaper, and dozens magazines. The real parliament, the true center of national debate, is the television talk show, and of course, Berlusconi is the owner of most of the studios. This concentration of media power in his hands means that any political struggle seems to be a race between a nuclear power and a child with a knife.
Whenever someone dares to criticize Berlusconi the dogs of war are unleashed, and is mounted a campaign to discredit him. Gianfranco Fini, considered as long as the dolphin of Berlusconi, was the victim of choice this summer. Just Fini has tried to distance himself from the accident policy of the Berlusconi government, was accused of financial impropriety in his real estate business in Monaco. Emma Marcegaglia, the young head of Confindustria and openly critical of Berlusconi, has suffered similar treatment. I too have been a victim. Years ago when I published a book furious tone for what Berlusconi was taking Italy on one of its magazines appeared a long article I called the "Pinocchio English", his scary minister for communications accused my text to be a mixture of "Marxism and fanaticism." As long as Berlusconi will continue to hold such a media power, nobody really dares to challenge the knife. To do so would, paradoxically, not political ambition, but political suicide.
E 'indicates that the most credible threats come from his own camp, because the center-left opposition is notoriously weak and divided. In the 12 years that I worked on the political news of the Italian center-left leaders and programs has changed so many times that it seems they are playing the game of musical chairs. The leaders were at that time - the ones that come to mind - Prodi, D'Alema, Amato, Rutelli and Fassino, yet Prodi, Veltroni and now Bersani. And while many people hate Berlusconi, many of may, I fear, are the center-left parties rather pathetic. The Northern League has had incredible success in rounding up the votes of the working class with that huge swaths in the north which traditionally belonged to the reliable base of the left.
It has become clear that if anyone ever politically impugnerà that knife, not even Berlusconi never fall on his own sword. Despite all its faults, is a fighter, stubborn, determined and never ready to surrender. When he passed five years in opposition between 1996 and 2001, spoke in biblical terms as its "Desert Crossing". But his messianic complex is such that he never doubted that there would be a political resurrection. The only time where I ever felt a grudging admiration for him was when, recently, he was thrown against a miniature of the cathedral of Milan, breaking a tooth and causing the release of a lot of blood. While the security men tried to take him away in a hurry, he stood up on the car and shouted defiantly at her attacker. This was a man of about 70 who was quite seriously injured, who would have thought that his life was in danger, but had the courage to confront his assailant. In politics is the same. Each attack is immediately opposite a counterattack. Will never surrender, never.
In many countries, the most widely used mechanism for removing this type of leader is to appeal to the national interest. Thus the disappearance of a politician can give a measure of dignity, and can give the feeling of making a big sacrifice in the interest of their beloved country. But even if Berlusconi really believe to be a kind of savior, not that kind of savior who believe in personal sacrifice. Nor, above all, believes in the national interest.
Almost nothing of what happened under his rule suggests that he has a notion of any interests. He spent nearly two decades to subdue the interests of their nation: trying to ruin the RAI, the state broadcaster and a rival of his own media empire Mediaset decriminalizing false accounting, shortening the statute of limitations, so that crimes should be prescribed in an incredibly fast. Every political decision, it would seem, it is useful to Silvio, not to the peninsula as a whole. The genius lies in being tragic Berlusconi apparently managed to convince millions of people that his fate is their fate, who fear becoming a victim of judicial persecution, or they feel too taxed, or that it considers that an alien is condescending critics of the Italian lifestyle, are subtly convinced that getting rid of Silvio would become vulnerable and isolated .
However many of his fanatical fans now admit that this is a burden. Every time you set foot on the international stage Italians hold their breath and wait humble themselves and their country in recent years has called Obama "tanned," the queen told him to stop making noise, has been waiting for the leaders NATO while his back to talk the phone, and made the gesture of pointing a gun at a journalist uneasy.
Anyway, the country can not seem to get rid of: Fini seems to have the balls to vote against him on an opposition motion of no confidence can not do this alone. Part of the problem is that anyone who is seen as responsible for having forced the use of elections and endangering the parliamentary approval of the 2011 budget in times of deep economic crisis, will be punished at the polls. The parliament is paralyzed. The government has lost three votes in one day last week. Yesterday, a week after asking for the resignation of Berlusconi, Fini's party, and Freedom's Future formally joined the coalition. But the government is still there, like a battered boxer who misses a coach to throw in the towel.
The size of the problem was explained to me recently during a conversation with a friendly lawyer in Rome. The debate was over, as happens with monotonous regularity on Berlusconi, and the lawyer told me to believe the assassination the only means by which the country could get rid of that individual. Since it is normally a pacifist I thought he was joking, but he was serious. He could see no other way through which the country could get rid of his prime minister. Ok, I do not like Berlusconi's like many others, but I much prefer it to the power that be a return to the bloodshed of the '70s. But when a Catholic lawyer and law-abiding middle class began to speak quite seriously of armed insurrection, you realize that there is something deeply wrong in the country, which reached a dangerous political impasse.
And so the country is in a stalemate, unable to continue with Berlusconi, but unable to replace it. Since he came to power in 1994 was, in the words of the late Indro Montanelli, "the boulder which paralyzes Italian politics." There is no political discourse that does not appoint. Everything revolves around him. You can not going out to dinner without his name come out. Every election since 1994 was virtually a referendum on him, with the result at the moment - he likes football analogies - 3 to 2 in favor of it. Get rid of him is not just a matter of elections or coup. He has already lost before and bounced back. The only way to free Italian politics from his immense and destructive influence that would have died, or that the country was subjected to an extensive and programmatic deBerlusconizzazione, an attempt to return to reality after 20 years of his brainwashing television. I fear that the former is more likely the latter but still seems much to come.
( Original article by Tobias Jones )
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