Berlusconi - media mogul, prime minister, sex trafficker, etc..

Silvio Berlusconi has a long and extensive CV which includes entries such as mafioso, prime minister of Italy, media mogul, president of AC Milan, singer/songwriter and, only recently, sex trafficker.

He was in fact mentioned in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2011 published by the U.S. Department of State for facilitating child prostitution, due to his involvement in the infamous Rubygate.

To be totally honest, Berlusconi is still under trial for underage prostitution, and therefore innocent until proven guilty, but his mention in the report is definitely a further embarrassment for the country. I believe that in every other democratic country he would have no choice but to resign, how in Italy he is still allowed to stay in power is beyond my understanding.

The Minister of Defence travels in style

Just a few days ago I wrote an entry on how the Italian police is fundraising in order to buy petrol for their cars, following the Government spending cuts. Well, the cuts have obviously not affected the ministry of defence, which has recently acquired not one, but 19 new Maseratis.

The evil-looking Minister of Defence Ignazio La Russa, claimed that the cars were ordered a few years ago - silly excuse as Italy wasn't in a much better economic climate anyway.

Maurizio Caprino authored a very unbiased blog post for il Sole 24 Ore website, explaining that the cars might actually have been a good choice in terms of value for money, but still it seems that there was no good reason to justify such purchase.

Now, I know that this type of news can be easily blown out of proportion just to create scandal and that there might be a necessity for the ministry to owe such cars, but the point is that in Italy there is always a lack of transparency and politicians are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want with the tax-payers money. It is significant to point out that while the budget for the police was heavily reduced, the budget for the auto blu (cars used by politicians) has not been touched. These cars should only been used for work and official purposes, but they are notoriously used from pretty much everything, including going to football matches.

Beelzebub Ignazio La Russa

The Dangerous Buffoon

The thing I notice the most when I read Berlusconi-related news in the UK is that nobody takes him seriously anymore; they see him as a buffoon, but they seem to forget that he's the leader of one of the largest European economies and his poor management of the country can have effects on a global scale.

Tim Parks wrote a very good commentary for the Evening Standard. The title makes a very good point "Berlusconi's leering pantomime could hurt us all"...it is a pantomime, but one to be taken seriously. Mr. Parks also well describes the frustration of many italians (including myself):

"Why aren't Italians tearing their hair out in exasperation? Some are. But for the past decade and more, Berlusconi has enjoyed almost total control of the country's television, and the message has been that the economy is sound. An enormous number of people buy into that. Denial is always comfortable. Others comment with amused irony, as if all this were happening on another planet."

Well, my hope is that those Italians who are in exasperation are actually the majority of the country, and this exasperation will be reflected in a defeat for Berlusconi's party in the next elections. However, my worry is that we are still a minority, and the brainwashed ones his supporters will want to secure five more years of denial.

Berlusconi resigning?

Rumours of a possible resignation of Silvio Berlusconi before Christmas have set the web on fire this morning. Nothing has been confirmed, and to be honest I don't want to set my hopes too high, but if confirmed, the news will definitely be welcomed by many.

My question is, given that polls show an all-time low in the popularity of the Italian Prime Minister, wouldn't this be political suicide? Knowing him, probably not.

The opposition in Italy is still not strong enough, they still haven't got a leader that could run for elections if called too early, and most of all, they do not have a political programme. I feel that the past campaigns of the left in Italy have been disastrous, it seems that all they can do is to argue against everything that Berlusconi says, rather than come up with something new. He does cast a big shadow, but the opposition's best bet would be, in my opinion, to simply try to forget about him. Someone said that all publicity is good publicity, and this is definitely true. If in Italy we can't have a political debate without mentioning him, then we won't be able to move on.

Thinking about elections next spring makes me excited, but am not sure if I should be more scared instead?

Aren't you tired Mr. Berlusconi?

Merkel and Sarkozy on Berlusconi

This video has gone totally viral already.

When asked whether they trusted Berlusconi and its commitment to reforms, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy simply looked at each other and laughed.

Berlusconi is clearly perceived as nothing more than a joke by his peers, but unfortunately his actions are not laughing matter and the whole Europe will be affected by his non-existent economic strategy.

A Mediterranean Spring?

I was just reading this article from the Guardian, on the Tunisian bloggers  that have been so instrumental to the revolution that started an avalanche of revolutions in the Arab world and is eventually leading to the country's first free elections.

I wonder whether the Arab spring will finally infect Italy next spring, when we might have the chance of new elections? Also in Italy there is a lively online community of people against the system that share news outside the traditional media controlled by the dwarf Berlusconi.

It's very telling that even high profile journalists like Michele Santoro find the web as the only mean to keep expressing their opinions. Mr. Santoro is a left wing journalist and TV presenter that until last year presented Anno Zero, a programme on Rai 2 (RAI is the Italian public television but it's heavily controlled by the Government) which week, in week out received great ratings. RAI decided to stop the programme, a very odd decision as the programme was among the most successful for the broadcaster. The decision doesn't seem odd from a political perspective, as Santoro was alway very critical of the Berlusconi Government.

As a last resolution Mr Santoro has launched the website Servizio Pubblico "Public Service", a tongue in cheek reference to the public service, which RAI is supposed to offer, but is no longer doing due to political pressure. He will also start a new TV programme that will air mainly online and on a series of local and digital channels.

This clearly shows that there are many people in Italy going against the establishment, but how many people still rely only on the traditional media, and are therefore unlikely to be exposed to any anti-Berlusconi or even factual news? Let's no forget that Italy has an ageing population. And Italians love TV. Which is bad news as the quality of the TV programmes in Italy is terrible.

With Berlusconi controlling Mediaset, the main private TV broadcaster, and his Government also controlling the public TV, it's clear that freedom of speech is no longer granted in Italy.

David vs Goliath / Santoro vs Berlusconi

Inappropriate things to say when someone dies...

...in the specific, when a dictator that you've been a**-kissing until not long ago dies..

Silvio Berlusconi: "Sic transit gloria mundi" - a sentence normally used when someone great dies, not for a dictator...ok, we know that he thought you about Bunga Bunga parties, but still...

David Cameron: 'People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future.' - democratic? Really...let's not talk about democracy when somebody is summarily executed like that, but it's good that you care about the oil democratic future of Libya, Mr Cameron.


To end this post, just a couple of pictures to remind us just what hypocrites our leaders are: 

OK, not David Cameron, but same thing

Berlusconi kissing Gaddafi's hands

The Police is running out of petrol

There's a lot of talk and criticism in the UK regarding the Government's spending cuts, but in Italy, as usual, we take things to another level.

The police has been deeply affected by the cuts and police unions have organised protests in many Italian cities today. But what is peculiar about these protests? The unions are also doing a fundraising, asking citizens to donate money to a fund for the purchase of petrol. The cuts are so bad that the police soon won't be able to afford petrol for their cars.

When I read this shocking news, a comment piece written by Naomi Klein following the London riots, came to mind:

"You can't cut police budgets at the same time as you cut everything else. Because when you rob people of what little they have, in order to protect the interests of those who have more than anyone deserves, you should expect resistance – whether organised protests or spontaneous looting. And that's not politics. It's physics."


Well, I think that what Naomi Klein said for London, applies perfectly to the riots in Rome that we witnessed only a few days ago.

Riots in Rome

Yet another bribing scandal

On Friday 14 October, Berlusconi has survived another confidence vote in the parliament, thanks to a majority of one. The news has been widely reported by the media worldwide, but while the Italians are taking the web to discuss how Berlusconi managed to win this majority - BRIBING - nobody seems to mention it abroad.

Maybe journalists need to be safe and they fear reporting as news what might be perceived as gossip, but gossip is not.

Bribing doesn't necessarily involve cash (although it often does), and the Italian media is reporting on several cases of "favours" given right before the confidence vote. Like the wife of a MP, who is suddenly given an important new role. However, what everybody is wondering now is, how exactly Berlusconi bribed Marco Pannella, leader of the left wing Italian radical party, who suddenly decided to give his confidence vote to a government that he never supported.

There are many more stories to prove this bribing scandal, yet I don't think any of them has been picked up by the media outside of Italy.

Marco Pannella before the confidence vote

Gag Law

Unfortunately, while Italy is in the middle of its worst economic crisis and at risk of default, our politicians think it’s more important to spend time passing undemocratic laws that will eventually limit freedom of speech, rather than take care of the economy. This is of course thanks to our Prime Minister, who has quite a few skeleton in the closet.

As a consequence of the Wiretapping Act, several websites and blogs will have no choice but to shut down, Wikipedia has already shut down its Italian page (at the moment just as a form of protest):

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011/en

"This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.

Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge - the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website.

Hence, anyone who feels offended by any content published on a blog, an online newspaper and, most likely, even on Wikipedia would have the right for a statement ("correction") to be shown, unaltered, on the page, aimed to contradict and disprove the allegedly harmful contents,regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources." 

That is why I decided to start writing this blog. If the parliament will pass the law, they will still have no power over what is published abroad, and also, I feel that there is a lack of information published in English regarding what's happening in Italy.

 

I was surprised how the Wikipedia news didn't resonate here in the UK, so I decided to contact John Hooper from The Guardian, who wrote a piece about the Wiretapping Act a few weeks ago. He was nice enough to reply, but unfortunately his editor didn't want to publish the story.

The news was eventually published by a few high-reach websites such as BBC News and Reuters, but still I am surprised how nobody is making a big fuss about it outside of Italy. This law clearly goes against the principle of freedom of speech, and every democratic country should stand for it.