The chasm between Berlusconi and reality

One minute he’s a comic, the next a megalomaniac. But this will not help Italy’s ailing economy
James Walston - August 31, 2009

This time Silvio Berlusconi seems to have gone too far; last week he unleashed his pitbull courtiers in an attempt to gag the few remaining opposition media. But the autumn offensive got off to a bad start as the hounds and their master bit off more than they could chew. The Roman Catholic Church and a coalition of Italian and foreign papers are too much even for Mr Berlusconi’s overblown ego.

We are now being given an insight into the Italian Prime Minister’s personal and political weaknesses. The attack began when the parliamentary committee for broadcasting sought to change some of the senior managers of the public broadcaster RAI. It happens that they all work for programmes that are critical of Mr Berlusconi. This came a month after the Prime Minister had laid into a RAI journalist, saying that it was “intolerable that a public service broadcaster, paid for by the taxpayer, should criticise the Government”. This was said through clenched teeth and tensed jaw. The real and visible anger betrayed his lack of control.

The second salvo came when Niccolò Ghedini, Mr Berlusconi’s lawyer and first pitbull, said that they would be suing La Repubblica for libel. The newspaper has listed ten questions for Mr Berlusconi since June. Mr Ghedini argues that asking those questions is libellous and claims a million euros in damages. He has also said that they will sue foreign papers. This brought a shower of criticism from all quarters. Abroad, the reaction was between laughter and indignation; aren’t papers supposed to ask questions?

The other pack is led by Vittorio Feltri, editor of one of the Berlusconi family papers, Il Giornale. His strategy is to go for the man, not the ball. Mr Feltri got into serious hot water when he went for Dino Boffo, the editor of Avvenire, the paper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. For some weeks Avvenire has been criticising Mr Berlusconi’s lifestyle. Mr Feltri claimed that Mr Boffo had plea-bargained his way out of a harassment charge and had had a gay relationship, so should not be preaching about Mr Berlusconi’s sex life.

The effects were not what the Prime Minister wanted; after more than a month of patient diplomacy, his staff had negotiated a dinner with Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, to be held after a ceremony of forgiveness. Mr Berlusconi was to have been pardoned by the Church but the cardinal cancelled the dinner and the rift between the Government and the Church has become an abyss.

The message is simple; Mr Berlusconi needs the Church more than it needs him. His attack on Mr Boffo has shown that his anger trumps his political judgment.

These moves come after months of revelations of sleaze and even possible crimes, as well as a statement by his wife that he is “not well”. In a simple, straightforward world, he would have resigned long ago. But Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy is neither simple nor straightforward. — except in his own view, which is that a majority of Italians voted for him so he has a mandate to do what he wants.

After his first victory in 1994, he proclaimed himself “anointed by the people”, implying that he had the same powers as a divine-right monarch anointed by God. Fifteen years later he is even more convinced of his own destiny. He is Europe’s answer to Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, a populist alternatively bullying and charming his way to power and dismantling all opposition.

But how does he remain popular? The electoral support and approval ratings are genuine, though slipping. Control of the media obviously gives him a huge advantage, but his image and his programme have been popular while the opposition has been disastrously divided, leaderless and without a programme. To have more hair, more girls and fewer wrinkles the older you grow appeals to a lot of men, not just Italian, and many women fall for the smell of glamour and Rolexes.

Since returning to power last year, Mr Berlusconi has given himself immunity from criminal prosecution while in office and countered President Napolitano’s powers to check the constitutionality of Bills. The institutional opposition, like the courts and President, have been trussed like oven-ready capons and most of the media is directly or indirectly controlled by the Prime Minister. If anyone dares to squeak, they are threatened directly.

His foreign policy claims move between the comical and the megalomaniacal. His impatience and sense of omnipotence in business carried over to his political life, which now allows him to ignore reality and to create his own.

Today, though, he acts like a man out of control. Even though he is one of the richest men and among the world’s political leaders, he seems disappointed and frustrated. No amount of wealth can make him young or handsome, force the Vatican to accept him, give him the influence of Mr Brown, Mr Sarkozy or Ms Merkel, or even bestow on him the status of established wealth like the Agnellis. So he overreacts against any criticism.

But the gap between his reality and everyone else’s is widening. Various medications may take their toll and his happy smirk can no longer hide the anger that boils to the surface when he is crossed.

The minors and the prostitutes have cracked the image but, if he falls, it will be because no amount of spin can disguise his economic mismanagement. The unemployment and hardship that Italians are likely to face this autumn, for which he is largely responsible, will be the reality check that counts.

(James Walston is Professor of International Relations at the American University of Rome)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6815531.ece