GetPublished de The Economist of November 4, 2010 (translation from Italy from abroad ):
A step too
It 's like in the past 18 months, the Italian public life had drawn a circular groove and unnecessary. In May 2009 the country was in fibrillation for the revelations of the mysterious friendship between his septuagenarian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and a blonde 18 year old aspiring actress. A year and a half later, the attention is all for the relationship between Berlusconi to another 18 year old, a girl with jet black hair, the daughter of Moroccan immigrants.
Karima el-Mahorug, it seems that this is the His real name (she prefers Ruby Heartbreaker), began to dance in the world of politics on October 26 last year, when it was learned that she had been questioned by a court in Milan as part of an investigation based on facilitation of prostitution allegations involving three people close to Berlusconi. It turned out that even the el-Mahroug had told the magistrates feasts to which many women took part in the Premier villa near Milan. It seems that one of them has ended with an erotic game called "Bunga Bunga." The el-Mahroug, ran away from home and become a belly dancer, said that the billionaire leader of Italy gave her, of her own free will, after 7 thousand euro hearing his sad story.
The story goes far beyond mere allegations or the damage that is causing the image Berlusconi of Italy. Last May, police in Milan held in custody El-Mahroug suspected of theft, only to drop it even though it was still a minor and should be given in trust. The commissioner said the police had received a telephone call from Berlusconi and Prime Minister had announced to send an employee to take custody of the el-Mahroug. On November 2, the judge in Milan ruled that the police had followed the correct procedure.
The answers given so far by Berlusconi gave credit to worst assumptions, having said that what happened in his house are made private, which has no intention to change lifestyle and, anyway, you better be passionate about pretty girls rather than being gay - an observation that left stunned critics are more liberal, but that probably has been rejected even by the evil that even loyal to Berlusconi might be tempted by the charms even more reactionary of the Northern League, Berlusconi's ally in the center-right coalition.
The nerve had taken possession of the President of the Council during the first wave of sex scandals of 2009. Will it work this time? The controversies of the past year they knocked down against a strong government. Berlusconi Napoli had cleared the mountains of rubbish which had dropped the previous center-left government. He had managed to successfully merge his party with the former neo-fascist Gianfranco Fini, creating a right-wing movement, the People of Freedom (PDL). Italian banks had exceeded the credit crisis, without almost become touched, and many voters still believed the government claims that the Italian economy had behaved on the whole, far better than any other country in Europe. His popularity ratings were so high.
But things are different today. One of the latest polls stood at only 2.5 points below the PDL ahead of the main opposition group, the Democratic Party. Supporters of the PDL are adrift since last May, when the government, with an abrupt reversal, announced the need for a package of corrective measures to avoid painful that Italy did the same end of Greece.
The central government is paralyzed, repeatedly distracted from his duties by the financial scandals involving ministers and secretaries of Berlusconi and his attempts to procure immunity from legal process. Last month, the Corriere della Sera has calculated that, subject to routine ones, the Parliament passed new laws this year, only ten. Consob the body that regulates the market, he waited more than four months that the government appoints a new president. And, more ominously, the garbage has taken to accumulate on the streets of Naples.
Critics of Berlusconi reacted with anger last scandal unimaginable last year. And, more importantly, his supporters are much more subdued in its defense. The Minister for Equal Opportunity, Mara Carfagna, long the center of gossip to his relationship with Berlusconi, has deviated from what was stated by the Prime Minister about the gay. The same day, two gentlemen have given up leadership of the PDL. There is a widespread
current of thought in Italy that the scandal marked the beginning of the end. But it could be playing very long and difficult, as one who has the means to put offside Berlusconi is a politician who would derive less revenue from such a move. In July, Fini led a revolt that saw his followers break away from Berlusconi PDL thus depriving the majority in the House. Now they are designing a new party. But this is not yet ready to face elections and Fini knows that if the government did fall, it could be described by the prime minister as one who has betrayed the law, destabilizing the country at a time when Italy el ' Eurozone in general need a firm and safe driving.
Fini and his followers must decide Nov. 7 whether to quit or not by the government. If they do, they may choose to refer the decision in the hands of Parliament until they are ready to exclude it forever. But Berlusconi will they have the best? It may rather resign, arguing that the position of his former ally is no longer sustainable. And that could enable him to present himself in the eyes of the country in which role he likes best, that of the victim.
But there are risks. Rather than dissolve parliament and call new elections, President Giorgio Napolitano may decide for a multiparty transitional government. E even if the President pushed for new elections, polls show Berlusconi Fini freely only to become a prisoner of Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League.
Until you will overcome this impasse, Italy remains a country adrift, with a government unable to design policies that it needs (the most urgent of all, a strategy to boost economic competitiveness) . Last month Emma Marcegaglia, president of the association Confindustria, the industrialists said that Italy "can not afford" new elections. But even a government that has ceased to govern.
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