From The Sunday Times
July 5, 2009
The photographs show Silvio Berlusconi grinning broadly as two young women kiss in front of him at his Sardinian estate. But the same photographs threaten to embarrass the Italian prime minister on the eve of the G8 summit of leading industrialised nations that he will host this week.
After two months of allegations about his private life, including a prostitute’s claim that she spent a night at Berlusconi’s residence in Rome, he is keen to put the sleaze behind him and make a new start as a “can do” statesman.
Several European publications are bidding for photographs by Antonello Zappadu, who took 5,000 pictures of Berlusconi’s guests at Villa Certosa in Sardinia in 2007 and 2008. An informed source said the aim was to publish them just before the summit begins on Wednesday “for maximum impact”.
The images show Berlusconi, who was leader of the opposition at the time, with five young women in a gazebo. Two of them are sitting on his lap. He grins approvingly as Angela Sozio, 36, a red-headed former Big Brother contestant, sits on the knees of another young woman and kisses her on the lips.
A man tries to fondle a blonde woman’s breast but she pushes him away. The group then walk through the Villa Certosa estate and Sozio stages a fake wedding ceremony.
She gives a bouquet of flowers to a young woman with whom Berlusconi has been holding hands. Sozio and the other two women intone a wedding march.
Prosecutors in Bari, southern Italy, have questioned Patrizia D’Addario, the call girl who says she was with Berlusconi on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama’s election night. They have also questioned Sozio as part of an investigation into the alleged recruitment of female guests for parties at the prime minister’s homes.
In April 2007 Oggi magazine published part of the picture sequence in a cover story entitled Berlusconi’s Harem. It included shots of Berlusconi, slipping his hand inside the shirt of one of the women. At the time a privacy watchdog banned Oggi from publishing the rest of the photographs.
Last month a Sardinian judge ordered all 5,000 photographs to be seized on the grounds that they violated Berlusconi’s privacy, but they had already been sold to Ecoprensa, a Colombian picture agency. The Spanish newspaper El Pais has published photographs of a topless young woman by a pool and Mirek Topolanek, a former Czech prime minister, who is naked.
Also up for sale are photographs showing two topless women in thongs kissing under a shower in June 2008. The photographs were taken at another home belonging to Berlusconi.
La Repubblica newspaper yesterday identified a woman boarding Berlusconi’s plane at Sardinia’s Olbia airport in August 2008 as the former Bulgarian actress Darina Pavlova, widow of tycoon Iliya Pavlov, who was shot dead by a sniper in 2003. Bulgarian papers reported in 2007 that Berlusconi had “fallen in love” with Pavlova, 44, one of eastern Europe’s richest women.
Berlusconi said nothing last week about the scandal, which began when his wife, Veronica Lario, demanded a divorce. She alleged that he “frequents underage girls” after he attended the 18th birthday party of Noemi Letizia, a model.
Since then his popularity has fallen from 73% to 62%, according to private polls. He has told his staff that he is worried about photographs appearing before the summit in L’Aquila in central Italy, which was devastated by an earthquake in April.
Berlusconi, who was jeered with shouts of “paedophile” and “whoremonger” when he visited the scene of a train crash in Viareggio in Tuscany last week, will aim to minimise the risk of further public hostility when he escorts leaders to towns hit by the earthquake.
A residents’ association named 3.32, after the time of the tremor, intends to mount protests during the summit. Three months on, 25,000 homeless people are still living in camps and the temperature in the tents can reach 44C.
Another 35,000 people have been moved to campsites and hotels on the Adriatic. Local critics contrast this with the speed with which a road to the airport was widened for the G8 leaders. It took three weeks.
Berlusconi also risks a snub from Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Italian-born wife of the French president. After Berlusconi joked that Obama was “always tanned”, she remarked: “Sometimes I am very happy that I have become French.”
Bruni is expected to stay in Rome during the summit and will travel to visit areas hit by the earthquake.
The first ladies of France and the United States are expected to make only brief appearances at the summit, including one at a dinner hosted by the Italian president and another at a gala concert. Their programme includes audiences with Pope Benedict XVI, tours of devastated villages and sightseeing.
American officials said Michelle Obama would stay at a hotel in the capital with her daughters Sasha and Malia; they plan to visit the Colosseum and the Forum. On Friday she will meet the Pope with her husband.
An aide quoted Berlusconi as saying: “If all goes well (at the G8), we’ll make changes in the party and in the government.” Worried by his declining popularity among female voters, the prime minister is considering a reshuffle to bring more women into his government.
Berlusconi has already decided to stay away from his Sardinian villa this summer as it is judged too vulnerable to the paparazzi. Instead he will holiday at his villa in Paraggi near the Riviera resort of Portofino.
John Follain
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6638172.ece
domenica 5 luglio 2009
martedì 30 giugno 2009
Don't embarrass Italy before G8 summit, president urges media
John Hooper in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 June 2009 19.59 BST
Italy's head of state today begged his country's politicians and journalists to safeguard its international reputation by suspending discussion of controversial issues in the run-up to next week's summit of the G8 rich nations, which Silvio Berlusconi will chair against a background of sensational allegations about his sex life. "Given the sensitivity of this international event, it would be quite right to call a truce in the controversies between now and the G8," President Giorgio Napolitano said.
He did not identify which controversies he had in mind, but Berlusconi's alleged involvement with callgirls and friendship with a teenage would-be actress and model have been at the centre of public attention for more than a month. The prime minister last night endorsed Napolitano's suggestion.
"We hope the head of state's invitation is taken up," he added. Berlusconi swept aside speculation that his government might fall, saying it was "the most stable and secure in the entire west".
He was speaking at a press conference in Naples aboard the Fantasia, a cruise liner that was to have hosted the summit delegations before the prime minister switched the venue from Sardinia to the earthquake-struck inland city of L'Aquila.
Deploying a welter of statistics, diagrams and artists' impressions, the prime minister assured the media that his illustrious guests would nevertheless be received in style at a large revenue guard barracks hastily converted for the occasion. He said the site would soon have 121,000 square metres of gardens with 6,850 bushes and extensive lawns.
Picking up on the theme of the danger to Italy's international standing, the prime minister said: "We shall certainly not make a bad impression."
Napolitano said he had had a "wide-ranging" conversation with Berlusconi about the G8 summit. But it was unclear if it had taken place before or after he launched his highly unusual appeal for what in effect would be a suspension of normal democratic life in Italy.
Magistrates in the southern city of Bari are questioning about 30 women, some of whom are alleged to have been paid by a local businessman to attend five parties held by Berlusconi. One has said that a paid escort slept with Italy's married prime minister last November.
The controversy surrounding the alleged callgirls has temporarily obscured an earlier scandal over Berlusconi's mysterious relationship with an 18-year-old Neapolitan girl who applied for a job on one of his television channels. The prime minister said he would make a statement to parliament about his friendship with the girl, but has never done so.
There was no immediate reaction to Napolitano's initiative from the leader of Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic party (PD), which appeared to be split on the issue.
The head of the party in the lower house of parliament, Antonello Soro, said the president was "absolutely right", but added that Berlusconi, with his "statements and continuous accusations", had been responsible for much of the controversy. A PD backbencher, Marco Beltrandi, said however that he was shocked by the president's appeal, which would be "unacceptable anywhere". Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the smaller Italy of Principles party, dismissed the idea that the country's image could be damaged by further controversy. "The whole world laughs at us," he said. "We should resolve this cancer that is called the Berlusconi government as soon as possible, even before the G8 [summit]."
G8 summits are a delicate issue for Berlusconi. The last one he hosted, in Genoa in 2001, was the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters in which a demonstrator was shot dead. Several dozen police officers were later put on trial in connection with a bloody attack on unarmed protesters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/29/silvio-berlusconi-g8-summit-allegations
guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 June 2009 19.59 BST
Italy's head of state today begged his country's politicians and journalists to safeguard its international reputation by suspending discussion of controversial issues in the run-up to next week's summit of the G8 rich nations, which Silvio Berlusconi will chair against a background of sensational allegations about his sex life. "Given the sensitivity of this international event, it would be quite right to call a truce in the controversies between now and the G8," President Giorgio Napolitano said.
He did not identify which controversies he had in mind, but Berlusconi's alleged involvement with callgirls and friendship with a teenage would-be actress and model have been at the centre of public attention for more than a month. The prime minister last night endorsed Napolitano's suggestion.
"We hope the head of state's invitation is taken up," he added. Berlusconi swept aside speculation that his government might fall, saying it was "the most stable and secure in the entire west".
He was speaking at a press conference in Naples aboard the Fantasia, a cruise liner that was to have hosted the summit delegations before the prime minister switched the venue from Sardinia to the earthquake-struck inland city of L'Aquila.
Deploying a welter of statistics, diagrams and artists' impressions, the prime minister assured the media that his illustrious guests would nevertheless be received in style at a large revenue guard barracks hastily converted for the occasion. He said the site would soon have 121,000 square metres of gardens with 6,850 bushes and extensive lawns.
Picking up on the theme of the danger to Italy's international standing, the prime minister said: "We shall certainly not make a bad impression."
Napolitano said he had had a "wide-ranging" conversation with Berlusconi about the G8 summit. But it was unclear if it had taken place before or after he launched his highly unusual appeal for what in effect would be a suspension of normal democratic life in Italy.
Magistrates in the southern city of Bari are questioning about 30 women, some of whom are alleged to have been paid by a local businessman to attend five parties held by Berlusconi. One has said that a paid escort slept with Italy's married prime minister last November.
The controversy surrounding the alleged callgirls has temporarily obscured an earlier scandal over Berlusconi's mysterious relationship with an 18-year-old Neapolitan girl who applied for a job on one of his television channels. The prime minister said he would make a statement to parliament about his friendship with the girl, but has never done so.
There was no immediate reaction to Napolitano's initiative from the leader of Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic party (PD), which appeared to be split on the issue.
The head of the party in the lower house of parliament, Antonello Soro, said the president was "absolutely right", but added that Berlusconi, with his "statements and continuous accusations", had been responsible for much of the controversy. A PD backbencher, Marco Beltrandi, said however that he was shocked by the president's appeal, which would be "unacceptable anywhere". Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the smaller Italy of Principles party, dismissed the idea that the country's image could be damaged by further controversy. "The whole world laughs at us," he said. "We should resolve this cancer that is called the Berlusconi government as soon as possible, even before the G8 [summit]."
G8 summits are a delicate issue for Berlusconi. The last one he hosted, in Genoa in 2001, was the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters in which a demonstrator was shot dead. Several dozen police officers were later put on trial in connection with a bloody attack on unarmed protesters.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/29/silvio-berlusconi-g8-summit-allegations
Berlusconi dubs himself ‘most popular’ leader
By Guy Dinmore in Naples
Published: June 30 2009
Appearing on a billionaire’s luxury ship in the Bay of Naples on Monday, nine days before he hosts a Group of Eight summit, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, rejected reports that his government risked falling apart over his personal life.
“My government is probably the most safe and secure in the west,” he said.
He specifically rejected “foreign” press reports questioning its stability in the wake of allegations by escorts that they had been paid by a businessman to attend parties at the prime minister’s residences and that one had sex with him on the night of the US elections in November.
Mr Berlusconi, 72, cited an unsourced opinion poll as giving him a 62.3 per cent approval rating, making him “the most popular head of government in all the west”.
An Ispo poll published at the weekend gave him a 49.1 per cent approval rating, and suggested that he had lost the support of some women and young people. Journalists were invited to a press conference aboard the Fantasia, Europe’s largest cruise liner, operated by MSC Crociere. Its billionaire owner, Gianluigi Aponte, sat in the front row.
The prime minister thanked him for offering the liner for use by world leaders attending the July 8-10 G8 summit – before Mr Berlusconi decided to move the venue to L’Aquila, a city devastated by an earthquake in April.
Mr Berlusconi spoke about his government’s achievements and plans for the summit, citing in detail the number of electric cars to be used (33), methane-powered minibuses (10) and subsidies for planting trees (€1m, £850,000, $1.4m). The meeting is to be attended by 39 heads of government and international organisations.
Minimising the danger of embarrassing questions over his private life and a judicial investigation into the businessman suspected of procuring prostitutes, the premier took only five brief questions.
As Mr Berlusconi left, a foreign reporter asked him what he had done on the night of the US elections. But the prime minister walked on, smiling. In an interview last week with Chi, a magazine that he owns, Mr Berlusconi said he had no memory of the name or face of 42-year-old Patrizia D’Addario, who said she spent the night with him because she wanted his help in fixing a building permit problem. Ms D’Addario said she felt betrayed because help was promised but did not materialise.
Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire media magnate, also turned on the Italian media, accusing newspapers of deepening the financial crisis by preaching negativity.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/22acb81a-64f6-11de-a13f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Published: June 30 2009
Appearing on a billionaire’s luxury ship in the Bay of Naples on Monday, nine days before he hosts a Group of Eight summit, Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, rejected reports that his government risked falling apart over his personal life.
“My government is probably the most safe and secure in the west,” he said.
He specifically rejected “foreign” press reports questioning its stability in the wake of allegations by escorts that they had been paid by a businessman to attend parties at the prime minister’s residences and that one had sex with him on the night of the US elections in November.
Mr Berlusconi, 72, cited an unsourced opinion poll as giving him a 62.3 per cent approval rating, making him “the most popular head of government in all the west”.
An Ispo poll published at the weekend gave him a 49.1 per cent approval rating, and suggested that he had lost the support of some women and young people. Journalists were invited to a press conference aboard the Fantasia, Europe’s largest cruise liner, operated by MSC Crociere. Its billionaire owner, Gianluigi Aponte, sat in the front row.
The prime minister thanked him for offering the liner for use by world leaders attending the July 8-10 G8 summit – before Mr Berlusconi decided to move the venue to L’Aquila, a city devastated by an earthquake in April.
Mr Berlusconi spoke about his government’s achievements and plans for the summit, citing in detail the number of electric cars to be used (33), methane-powered minibuses (10) and subsidies for planting trees (€1m, £850,000, $1.4m). The meeting is to be attended by 39 heads of government and international organisations.
Minimising the danger of embarrassing questions over his private life and a judicial investigation into the businessman suspected of procuring prostitutes, the premier took only five brief questions.
As Mr Berlusconi left, a foreign reporter asked him what he had done on the night of the US elections. But the prime minister walked on, smiling. In an interview last week with Chi, a magazine that he owns, Mr Berlusconi said he had no memory of the name or face of 42-year-old Patrizia D’Addario, who said she spent the night with him because she wanted his help in fixing a building permit problem. Ms D’Addario said she felt betrayed because help was promised but did not materialise.
Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire media magnate, also turned on the Italian media, accusing newspapers of deepening the financial crisis by preaching negativity.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/22acb81a-64f6-11de-a13f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Silvio Berlusconi refuses to be diverted by scandal as he plays statesman
Silvio Berlusconi holds his press conference on the Fantasia in Naples harbourFrom The Times June 30, 2009
Richard Owen in Naples
Silvio Berlusconi did yesterday what beleaguered leaders have done down the ages. Facing an onslaught of revelations about his private life, the Italian leader fought back by recasting himself as an international statesman.
With a week to go before he hosts the G8 summit of world leaders, the Prime Minister batted away questions about his connection to young women and instead tried to concentrate on the big issues facing the world today.
In an hour-long press conference Mr Berlusconi, one of the longest-serving Western leaders still in power, said that he was focused on issues of global importance such as climate change and reform of the world financial system — along with Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, on which he said that the question of sanctions against Tehran would be discussed.
The G5 nations — China, Brazil, Mexico, India and South Africa — and Egypt will also attend. The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who made a controversial visit to Rome this month, will appear at the head of the African Union delegation. Mr Berlusconi rejected allegations in the European press suggesting that his Government was unstable. In fact it was “the most stable in the Western world”. His party had won European and local elections decisively, and his current popularity was 62.3 per cent.
For his domestic audience he even had time for a slide show to demonstrate how he had resolved the Naples rubbish crisis last year.
He was backed by Giulio Tremonti, the Economy Minister, who has been mooted as a possible leader of a caretaker government if Mr Berlusconi falls. Mr Tremonti dismissed such talk, saying that any caretaker government would “last less time than the sell-by date on a pot of yoghurt”.
He said the European and local elections had shown that Mr Berlusconi had a strong majority and that he would govern to the end of his five-year mandate. He also rejected suggestions that Mr Berlusconi had been weakened by the Bari inquiry into alleged payments to women to attend his parties, saying that the prosecutors would do better to investigate the Sacra Corona Unita, the local Mafia.
If his performance was intended to reassure the public and world leaders, it was only partially successful.
Mr Berlusconi’s choice of a cruise ship, the Fantasia, moored in Naples harbour, was an odd location to stage his comeback. The ship, the pride of the MSC cruise line based in Genoa, would have been used to house G8 delegates had it been held at La Maddalena, the former naval base in Sardinia, as originally planned.
Instead, the location has been changed to the L’Aquila finance police barracks in Abruzzo, which has been the nerve centre of the post-earthquake reconstruction in central Italy.
La Maddelena was being modernised and revamped as the summit venue when Mr Berlusconi decided abruptly to move the meeting to L’Aquila after the April 6 earthquake as a gesture of solidarity with the victims.
President Napolitano called yesterday for a “truce” in the media on “controversies” in the run-up to the G8 summit. Despite Mr Berlusconi’s best efforts, however, the scandal surrounding his relations with young women refuses to die.
Manila Gorio, the transsexual talent scout, whose local television show in Bari has featured many of the showgirls who attended Mr Berlusconi’s parties in Rome and Sardinia, confirmed that Patrizia D’Addario, the escort who claimed to have spent US election night with Mr Berlusconi in November, had secretly made audio and video recordings, now with the police.
“We are like sisters,” Ms Gorio told La Stampa. “We know each other’s secrets.”
She said that Ms D’Addario had slept with Mr Berlusconi to put pressure on him — unsuccessfully — to help her to get planning permission for a bed and breakfast hotel.
With a week to go before he hosts the G8 summit of world leaders, the Prime Minister batted away questions about his connection to young women and instead tried to concentrate on the big issues facing the world today.
In an hour-long press conference Mr Berlusconi, one of the longest-serving Western leaders still in power, said that he was focused on issues of global importance such as climate change and reform of the world financial system — along with Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, on which he said that the question of sanctions against Tehran would be discussed.
The G5 nations — China, Brazil, Mexico, India and South Africa — and Egypt will also attend. The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who made a controversial visit to Rome this month, will appear at the head of the African Union delegation. Mr Berlusconi rejected allegations in the European press suggesting that his Government was unstable. In fact it was “the most stable in the Western world”. His party had won European and local elections decisively, and his current popularity was 62.3 per cent.
For his domestic audience he even had time for a slide show to demonstrate how he had resolved the Naples rubbish crisis last year.
He was backed by Giulio Tremonti, the Economy Minister, who has been mooted as a possible leader of a caretaker government if Mr Berlusconi falls. Mr Tremonti dismissed such talk, saying that any caretaker government would “last less time than the sell-by date on a pot of yoghurt”.
He said the European and local elections had shown that Mr Berlusconi had a strong majority and that he would govern to the end of his five-year mandate. He also rejected suggestions that Mr Berlusconi had been weakened by the Bari inquiry into alleged payments to women to attend his parties, saying that the prosecutors would do better to investigate the Sacra Corona Unita, the local Mafia.
If his performance was intended to reassure the public and world leaders, it was only partially successful.
Mr Berlusconi’s choice of a cruise ship, the Fantasia, moored in Naples harbour, was an odd location to stage his comeback. The ship, the pride of the MSC cruise line based in Genoa, would have been used to house G8 delegates had it been held at La Maddalena, the former naval base in Sardinia, as originally planned.
Instead, the location has been changed to the L’Aquila finance police barracks in Abruzzo, which has been the nerve centre of the post-earthquake reconstruction in central Italy.
La Maddelena was being modernised and revamped as the summit venue when Mr Berlusconi decided abruptly to move the meeting to L’Aquila after the April 6 earthquake as a gesture of solidarity with the victims.
President Napolitano called yesterday for a “truce” in the media on “controversies” in the run-up to the G8 summit. Despite Mr Berlusconi’s best efforts, however, the scandal surrounding his relations with young women refuses to die.
Manila Gorio, the transsexual talent scout, whose local television show in Bari has featured many of the showgirls who attended Mr Berlusconi’s parties in Rome and Sardinia, confirmed that Patrizia D’Addario, the escort who claimed to have spent US election night with Mr Berlusconi in November, had secretly made audio and video recordings, now with the police.
“We are like sisters,” Ms Gorio told La Stampa. “We know each other’s secrets.”
She said that Ms D’Addario had slept with Mr Berlusconi to put pressure on him — unsuccessfully — to help her to get planning permission for a bed and breakfast hotel.
domenica 28 giugno 2009
Las peligrosas amistades de Papi
Silvio Berlusconi, durante una entrevista concedida a la cadena de televisión estatal RAI a principios de junio
El anfitrión de la cumbre del G-8 en Italia trata de desdramatizar unas acusaciones que habrían forzado a dimitir a muchos políticos
Una colegiala de Nápoles a la que cortejó cuando era menor de edad (Noemi Letizia); un empresario trepa de Bari que acarrea chicas y cocaína a las fiestas VIP (Gianpaolo Tarantini); una prostituta cuarentona que trabaja siempre armada de grabadora (Patrizia d'Addario); una velina de 23 años que dice trabajar como chica imagen (Barbara Montereale), ambas convertidas en candidatas por la lista electoral La Puglia Antes que Nada tras pasar un par de noches en su casa; un chico para todo llamado Alessandro Mannarini que graba las fiestas con el móvil, y un abogado personal (Niccolò Ghedini) que trata de disculpar a su poderoso cliente diciendo que él solo era el "usuario final" (de las prostitutas). Ésta es, a grandes rasgos, la lista de amistades peligrosas con las que el primer ministro italiano ha pasado sus ratos de ocio en los últimos meses.
Dentro de sólo 12 días, el magnate y genial transformista milanés olvidará a este elenco sureño para recibir a 27 líderes y jefes de Gobierno en la cumbre del G8 que debe sentar las nuevas bases que regularán una economía global inmersa en la recesión más profunda desde 1929.
Así anda Berluscolandia. El PIB caerá este año el 5,5%, el déficit público galopa hacia el 5%, la deuda pública anda disparada, la renta per cápita sigue por debajo de la española pero casi nadie habla de eso. Y si habla, Berlusconi le dice que "se calle la boca".
"Hay que consumir y callar la boca a los catastrofistas, los organismos internacionales deben dejar de publicar datos negativos que producen pánico. La crisis es sólo psicológica", afirmó el viernes el primer ministro.
Sin duda tiene razón. Hablar de esas cosas no hace más que daño. La gente quiere vivir tranquila, ver la televisión, evadirse de la realidad, hablar de las velinas [azafatas televisivas], de todo ese ejército de chicas dispuestas a dejarse acariciar por un sultán de 73 años a cambio de una prueba en Mediaset o la RAI.
Emilio Fede, amigo del alma, compañero de juergas sardas y milanesas del primer ministro y presentador del Telediario del Canal 4, de su propiedad, ha declarado esta semana al Corriere della Sera que por la oficina de personal en Mediaset han pasado en estos años 47.000 personas (velinas y velinos) para hacer castings.
Así anda Berluscolandia. El PIB caerá este año el 5,5%, el déficit público galopa hacia el 5%, la deuda pública anda disparada, la renta per cápita sigue por debajo de la española pero casi nadie habla de eso. Y si habla, Berlusconi le dice que "se calle la boca".
"Hay que consumir y callar la boca a los catastrofistas, los organismos internacionales deben dejar de publicar datos negativos que producen pánico. La crisis es sólo psicológica", afirmó el viernes el primer ministro.
Sin duda tiene razón. Hablar de esas cosas no hace más que daño. La gente quiere vivir tranquila, ver la televisión, evadirse de la realidad, hablar de las velinas [azafatas televisivas], de todo ese ejército de chicas dispuestas a dejarse acariciar por un sultán de 73 años a cambio de una prueba en Mediaset o la RAI.
Emilio Fede, amigo del alma, compañero de juergas sardas y milanesas del primer ministro y presentador del Telediario del Canal 4, de su propiedad, ha declarado esta semana al Corriere della Sera que por la oficina de personal en Mediaset han pasado en estos años 47.000 personas (velinas y velinos) para hacer castings.
Se ha escrito que Italia era ya así hace 50 años, cuando Anna Magnani en Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951) se sometía a todo tipo de humillaciones para buscarle un papel a su hija en el cine. Se ha recordado que, desde Roma y antes, el poder siempre se ha servido de enanos, jovencitas y cantantes para olvidar las tensiones de la gobernación. El crítico de arte y filósofo Vittorio Sgarbi, incluso, ha escrito estos días: "Berlusconi se folla a todas esas chicas en nombre de todos los italianos, y estos se lo deben de agradecer porque para gobernar bien hay que follar bien".
Lo que parece cierto es que en un país más o menos normal, esta historia de sexo, poder, machismo, dominación, narcisismo compulsivo y eterna juventud habría terminado ya hace varias semanas con una moción de censura, una dimisión o quizá un discreto exilio en un avión privado. Nada de eso ha pasado; al contrario, muchos italianos parecen tolerar las aventuras del emperador con una compostura y una desenvoltura admirables.
El propio Papi lo ha señalado estos días, no se sabe si en pleno delirio megalómano o respondiendo al prudente cardenal que le reclamaba coherencia: "No pienso cambiar y no me arrepiento de nada. Soy un matador, un conquistador. Quizá algunos invitados fueron equivocados, y ellos se equivocaron con otros invitados. Pero yo soy así y los italianos me quieren así. Tengo el 61% de apoyos. Sienten que soy bueno, sincero, generoso, leal, y que mantengo las promesas".
Un hombre de honor, pues. Quizá se refería a eso. O quizá cuando uno no puede o no debe decir la verdad, bromear es la única salida posible. "No hay un modo más positivo de reaccionar a las calumnias", explica el sultán. Así que ve a unos obreros en una obra en L'Aquila, la sede del próximo G8, se acerca y les espeta: "Veo que somos muchos tíos aquí, ya traigo yo las velinas y las menores".
Hay formas y formas de afrontar este asunto que apasiona a los periódicos aunque las televisiones sumisas al primer ministro (seis de siete canales) tratan de esconderlo a toda costa. Y es que la autocrítica y la derrota no van con Berlusconi. Y rendirse y dimitir son verbos que en Italia se conjugan poco.
En su caso, además, renunciar al cargo es perder su tesoro más preciado: la inmunidad que le da el Laudo Alfano, la ley que impide procesar a las cuatro altas instancias del Estado. Y ya se sabe cómo son los jueces. El 19 de junio, mientras todos hablaban de las amigas de Berlusconi, su compañero del alma, Marcello Dell'Utri, acudía a la tercera audiencia del juicio en apelación en el que se defiende de haber fundado Forza Italia en coordinación con la mafia siciliana.
Dell'Utri fue condenado a nueve años de cárcel en 2004 por asociación mafiosa externa. La sentencia afirmó: "Está probado que Dell'Utri prometió a la mafia ventajas precisas en el campo político y, a cambio, está probado que la mafia, en ejecución de esa promesa, se comprometió a votar por Forza Italia en la primera confrontación electoral, y después".
Quizá por eso, desdramatizar es la consigna del momento en Berluscolandia. Y un buen asunto de faldas -si se olvida el pequeño detalle de las menores de edad- tiene desde luego mejor venta que un asunto de mafia. "Sí, va bene, se tirará todo lo que se mueve, pero es su vida privada, qué rayos os importa eso a vosotros, os habéis convertido en un periódico de cotilleo", decía la otra noche en una fiesta romana un veterano ex piloto de Alitalia.
Lo que no se ve no existe. Lo malo es que muchos italianos han visto ya algunas cosas, sin duda menos que los españoles o los británicos y seguramente mucho menos fuertes de lo que pueden llegar a ver. Pero si todo es psicológico, como lo es su adicción a las mujeres jóvenes, cada vez más mujeres y cada vez más jóvenes, la pregunta es: ¿por qué los italianos no reaccionan?
Una posible razón es que sigue sin haber oposición. El congreso del PD se celebrará el 11 de octubre, y de momento los reformistas están en construcción, sin líder y sin rumbo: mal momento para ir a elecciones anticipadas.
Otro motivo es que siendo el Pueblo de la Libertad, como dice Giovanni Sartori, un "gran pesebre en el que todos meriendan gracias al amo", el disenso interno es incipiente, pero todavía mínimo. Si tenemos al carismático y cantarín condottiere y no hay una alternativa de poder, quizá sea mejor hacer como que no pasa nada y aguantar el tirón. La agonía podría ser larga.
No será fácil aunque la sociedad italiana parece realmente dormida, ajena al estupor que agita a las cancillerías. El estruendoso silencio de los intelectuales en un país que fue vanguardia cultural de occidente se explica, según el sacerdote Filippo di Giacomo, porque "los que no cobran de Mondadori o Mediaset [empresas de Berlusconi] están intoxicados de dinero, de vanidad y de escepticismo". La ausencia de respuesta de la jerarquía del clero a la emergencia moral escandaliza más a los propios católicos y a los extranjeros que a muchos italianos, tan elásticos como sus obispos.
Y luego está la incomprensible parálisis de las mujeres, a quienes la actriz y activista italiana de origen somalí Shukri Said imagina "quitando hierro a la vicenda de papi y envidiando a las velinas bajo las lámparas de rayos uva".
En Salò o los 120 días de Sodoma, la última película de Pasolini, recuerda Said, "éste narró con toda crudeza cómo el poder se distancia de la humanidad transformándola en objeto, cómo el sexo tiene un papel metafórico terrible en esa mutación. Pasolini denunció la mercantilización de los cuerpos como metáfora de la esencia íntima del poder en la sociedad del consumismo capitalista (el usuario final, el consumidor final). Violencia, humillación, total convicción de impunidad. Ahora está pasando en la realidad".
No todas callan, sin embargo. Un reducido grupo de profesoras universitarias ha lanzado esta semana a través de la revista MicroMega un manifiesto llamando a las primeras damas del G8 a no acudir con sus maridos a Italia en señal de protesta por el trato indigno que Berlusconi da a las mujeres en "la esfera privada y pública". De momento la iniciativa ha tenido su eco, y ayer había recogido 8.500 firmas, entre ellas las de prestigiosas científicas e intelectuales. La primera dama mundial, Michelle Obama, ha echado un jarro de agua fría a la iniciativa al anunciar que vendrá, y además con sus dos hijas: la familia Obama tiene audiencia privada con el Papa en el Vaticano el 10 de julio, al término del G-8.
La mórbida respuesta de las antes combativas y hoy aletargadas donne italiane refleja la desmoralización y el decaimiento general. Convertidas en objeto de iniquidad por el usuario final, muchas mujeres callan y otorgan. "Si las mammas no solo no reaccionan sino que colaboran con este estado de cosas, ¿quién salvará a Italia?", se pregunta Said.
La historia empezó con el cursillo político organizado por Berlusconi en la sede del PDL para las velinas ante las elecciones europeas. Siguió con el Noemigate, que reveló que Berlusconi cortejó e invitó a un par de fiestas y a pasar el fin de año en su casa sarda a una joven de 17 años (con una amiga, Roberta O., de su misma edad, de la que por cierto nadie sabe nada desde entonces).
Pasando por los vuelos de Estado en los que viajaban cantantes, bailarinas de flamenco y prostitutas, llegaron las visitas de la meretriz Patrizia D'Addario y la chica imagen Barbara Montereale al harén de Palazzo Grazioli.
Dos meses después, aunque pocos italianos lo digan en público, es indudable que el Papigate está teniendo su coste. Desde entonces, Berlusconi ha mentido numerosas veces. Y algo ha empezado a cambiar. El otro día, una conexión en directo de un telediario de la RAI fue perturbada por un grupo de estudiantes que gritaba: "Berlusconi pedófilo". Pertenecían a Comunión y Liberación.
Berlusconi ha tratado de invocar cifras y sondeos para certificar el apoyo de los italianos. Pero resultan completamente irreales. Es cierto que ha vencido las elecciones europeas con el 35% de los votos, y que ha ganado a la izquierda mucho terreno en las locales. Pero la realidad está muy lejos del 72% de popularidad que se otorgaba a sí mismo -sin enseñar el sondeo- hace unas semanas. Y el viernes, él mismo rebajó ese apoyo al 61%, también sin pruebas: 11 puntos menos en dos semanas. Hay más: las europeas muestran que de cada 100 electores un tercio no votó. De ese 66% de electores, Berlusconi obtuvo el 35% de los votos. Si a eso le restamos al menos un 5% de votantes de la vieja AN que votan PDL pero no le tragan, el resultado es que de cada 100 italianos mayores de edad, Berlusconi recoge sólo un 20% de apoyos. Uno de cada cinco. ¿Será el indicio de que el final se acerca?
Lo que parece cierto es que en un país más o menos normal, esta historia de sexo, poder, machismo, dominación, narcisismo compulsivo y eterna juventud habría terminado ya hace varias semanas con una moción de censura, una dimisión o quizá un discreto exilio en un avión privado. Nada de eso ha pasado; al contrario, muchos italianos parecen tolerar las aventuras del emperador con una compostura y una desenvoltura admirables.
El propio Papi lo ha señalado estos días, no se sabe si en pleno delirio megalómano o respondiendo al prudente cardenal que le reclamaba coherencia: "No pienso cambiar y no me arrepiento de nada. Soy un matador, un conquistador. Quizá algunos invitados fueron equivocados, y ellos se equivocaron con otros invitados. Pero yo soy así y los italianos me quieren así. Tengo el 61% de apoyos. Sienten que soy bueno, sincero, generoso, leal, y que mantengo las promesas".
Un hombre de honor, pues. Quizá se refería a eso. O quizá cuando uno no puede o no debe decir la verdad, bromear es la única salida posible. "No hay un modo más positivo de reaccionar a las calumnias", explica el sultán. Así que ve a unos obreros en una obra en L'Aquila, la sede del próximo G8, se acerca y les espeta: "Veo que somos muchos tíos aquí, ya traigo yo las velinas y las menores".
Hay formas y formas de afrontar este asunto que apasiona a los periódicos aunque las televisiones sumisas al primer ministro (seis de siete canales) tratan de esconderlo a toda costa. Y es que la autocrítica y la derrota no van con Berlusconi. Y rendirse y dimitir son verbos que en Italia se conjugan poco.
En su caso, además, renunciar al cargo es perder su tesoro más preciado: la inmunidad que le da el Laudo Alfano, la ley que impide procesar a las cuatro altas instancias del Estado. Y ya se sabe cómo son los jueces. El 19 de junio, mientras todos hablaban de las amigas de Berlusconi, su compañero del alma, Marcello Dell'Utri, acudía a la tercera audiencia del juicio en apelación en el que se defiende de haber fundado Forza Italia en coordinación con la mafia siciliana.
Dell'Utri fue condenado a nueve años de cárcel en 2004 por asociación mafiosa externa. La sentencia afirmó: "Está probado que Dell'Utri prometió a la mafia ventajas precisas en el campo político y, a cambio, está probado que la mafia, en ejecución de esa promesa, se comprometió a votar por Forza Italia en la primera confrontación electoral, y después".
Quizá por eso, desdramatizar es la consigna del momento en Berluscolandia. Y un buen asunto de faldas -si se olvida el pequeño detalle de las menores de edad- tiene desde luego mejor venta que un asunto de mafia. "Sí, va bene, se tirará todo lo que se mueve, pero es su vida privada, qué rayos os importa eso a vosotros, os habéis convertido en un periódico de cotilleo", decía la otra noche en una fiesta romana un veterano ex piloto de Alitalia.
Lo que no se ve no existe. Lo malo es que muchos italianos han visto ya algunas cosas, sin duda menos que los españoles o los británicos y seguramente mucho menos fuertes de lo que pueden llegar a ver. Pero si todo es psicológico, como lo es su adicción a las mujeres jóvenes, cada vez más mujeres y cada vez más jóvenes, la pregunta es: ¿por qué los italianos no reaccionan?
Una posible razón es que sigue sin haber oposición. El congreso del PD se celebrará el 11 de octubre, y de momento los reformistas están en construcción, sin líder y sin rumbo: mal momento para ir a elecciones anticipadas.
Otro motivo es que siendo el Pueblo de la Libertad, como dice Giovanni Sartori, un "gran pesebre en el que todos meriendan gracias al amo", el disenso interno es incipiente, pero todavía mínimo. Si tenemos al carismático y cantarín condottiere y no hay una alternativa de poder, quizá sea mejor hacer como que no pasa nada y aguantar el tirón. La agonía podría ser larga.
No será fácil aunque la sociedad italiana parece realmente dormida, ajena al estupor que agita a las cancillerías. El estruendoso silencio de los intelectuales en un país que fue vanguardia cultural de occidente se explica, según el sacerdote Filippo di Giacomo, porque "los que no cobran de Mondadori o Mediaset [empresas de Berlusconi] están intoxicados de dinero, de vanidad y de escepticismo". La ausencia de respuesta de la jerarquía del clero a la emergencia moral escandaliza más a los propios católicos y a los extranjeros que a muchos italianos, tan elásticos como sus obispos.
Y luego está la incomprensible parálisis de las mujeres, a quienes la actriz y activista italiana de origen somalí Shukri Said imagina "quitando hierro a la vicenda de papi y envidiando a las velinas bajo las lámparas de rayos uva".
En Salò o los 120 días de Sodoma, la última película de Pasolini, recuerda Said, "éste narró con toda crudeza cómo el poder se distancia de la humanidad transformándola en objeto, cómo el sexo tiene un papel metafórico terrible en esa mutación. Pasolini denunció la mercantilización de los cuerpos como metáfora de la esencia íntima del poder en la sociedad del consumismo capitalista (el usuario final, el consumidor final). Violencia, humillación, total convicción de impunidad. Ahora está pasando en la realidad".
No todas callan, sin embargo. Un reducido grupo de profesoras universitarias ha lanzado esta semana a través de la revista MicroMega un manifiesto llamando a las primeras damas del G8 a no acudir con sus maridos a Italia en señal de protesta por el trato indigno que Berlusconi da a las mujeres en "la esfera privada y pública". De momento la iniciativa ha tenido su eco, y ayer había recogido 8.500 firmas, entre ellas las de prestigiosas científicas e intelectuales. La primera dama mundial, Michelle Obama, ha echado un jarro de agua fría a la iniciativa al anunciar que vendrá, y además con sus dos hijas: la familia Obama tiene audiencia privada con el Papa en el Vaticano el 10 de julio, al término del G-8.
La mórbida respuesta de las antes combativas y hoy aletargadas donne italiane refleja la desmoralización y el decaimiento general. Convertidas en objeto de iniquidad por el usuario final, muchas mujeres callan y otorgan. "Si las mammas no solo no reaccionan sino que colaboran con este estado de cosas, ¿quién salvará a Italia?", se pregunta Said.
La historia empezó con el cursillo político organizado por Berlusconi en la sede del PDL para las velinas ante las elecciones europeas. Siguió con el Noemigate, que reveló que Berlusconi cortejó e invitó a un par de fiestas y a pasar el fin de año en su casa sarda a una joven de 17 años (con una amiga, Roberta O., de su misma edad, de la que por cierto nadie sabe nada desde entonces).
Pasando por los vuelos de Estado en los que viajaban cantantes, bailarinas de flamenco y prostitutas, llegaron las visitas de la meretriz Patrizia D'Addario y la chica imagen Barbara Montereale al harén de Palazzo Grazioli.
Dos meses después, aunque pocos italianos lo digan en público, es indudable que el Papigate está teniendo su coste. Desde entonces, Berlusconi ha mentido numerosas veces. Y algo ha empezado a cambiar. El otro día, una conexión en directo de un telediario de la RAI fue perturbada por un grupo de estudiantes que gritaba: "Berlusconi pedófilo". Pertenecían a Comunión y Liberación.
Berlusconi ha tratado de invocar cifras y sondeos para certificar el apoyo de los italianos. Pero resultan completamente irreales. Es cierto que ha vencido las elecciones europeas con el 35% de los votos, y que ha ganado a la izquierda mucho terreno en las locales. Pero la realidad está muy lejos del 72% de popularidad que se otorgaba a sí mismo -sin enseñar el sondeo- hace unas semanas. Y el viernes, él mismo rebajó ese apoyo al 61%, también sin pruebas: 11 puntos menos en dos semanas. Hay más: las europeas muestran que de cada 100 electores un tercio no votó. De ese 66% de electores, Berlusconi obtuvo el 35% de los votos. Si a eso le restamos al menos un 5% de votantes de la vieja AN que votan PDL pero no le tragan, el resultado es que de cada 100 italianos mayores de edad, Berlusconi recoge sólo un 20% de apoyos. Uno de cada cinco. ¿Será el indicio de que el final se acerca?
MIGUEL MORA - Roma - 28/06/2009
Sarah Sands: Will old goat be on the menu at Berlusconi's summit?
Sunday, 28 June 2009
A petition by Italian women academics that calls on wives of G8 leaders to boycott the forthcoming summit in Italy as a protest against the behaviour of President Berlusconi is gaining signatures. The main topic on the agenda of the L'Aquila summit in July is the stabilisation of Afghanistan, but the chief subject of conversation is likely to be the heroically/disgracefully goatish behaviour of Silvio Berlusconi.
Just as President Obama ushered in a dawn of subtle, complex, individualistic world citizens, so President Berlusconi has his own counter-cultural musical hall line-up of busty women in bikinis, hypocritical bishops and goose-stepping Germans.
He is not the only European leader who behaves differently to the model we expect in this country. An Australian politician I met the other day had been puzzled by a reception he attended at the Elysée Palace. It had been an occasion for global politicians of the centre-right to discuss political principles. President Sarkozy greeted his guests and then disappeared from the room. The politicians eagerly awaited his return so that discussions could begin. After an hour or so they became restless. My Australian acquaintance helped himself to a drink and looked at the view from the window onto the courtyard. To his astonishment, he recognised Sarkozy, in a tracksuit, jogging round the edge. The guests concluded that the explanation for such bizarre behaviour must be that Sarkozy was French.
President Sarkozy is married to a chic woman who records pretentious songs. He is clever, charming, vain, and tried to marginalise the British over D-Day. Because he is French. Similarly, if any politician is going to get away with a cabinet of chorus girls, he will probably be Italian. Remember, Emperor Nero was quite popular with his people. In a country famous for its pornographic television, for its indifference towards the political process and for a historically lax view of rape, Berlusconi is not a freak.
Perhaps each nation gets the scandal it deserves. As a nation of shopkeepers, our greatest political earthquake centres on MPs' supermarket receipts and income tax arrangements. It makes our hearts beat faster.
Yet national stereotypes do not wholly explain why some politicians brush off scandal and others are sunk by it. Even if you share the view of those envious male bloggers who explain that "Berlusconi represents hope for all men that they will still be f*****g in their seventies", you might also acknowledge that he lacks a little dignity.
Some claim that Berlusconi is forgiven his Hugh Hefner-style indulgences because he is so very disciplined about immigration. But policies are not the key to everything. President Obama is often criticised for his policies, but remains worshipped for his charismatic cool.
The fact is that popularity is so fickle that it is indefinable. Gordon Brown cannot understand the changes in the public mood. He was loved for being gloomy and sleepless in a crisis and now he is despised for it. No wonder his election strategy is to hang on and hope for a change of wind. Look how it blew Peter Mandelson into something close to public affection.
President Berlusconi has a 60 per cent popularity rating not because the Viagra generation have voted with their feet, or because Italy is essentially a land of unclothed women and priapic men. His appeal is intangible. That is what makes it so galling for British politicians. There are no lessons to be learned.
Sarah Sands is deputy editor of the 'London Evening Standard'
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sarah-sands/sarah-sands-will-old-goat-be-on-the-menu-at-berlusconis-summit-1722251.html
A petition by Italian women academics that calls on wives of G8 leaders to boycott the forthcoming summit in Italy as a protest against the behaviour of President Berlusconi is gaining signatures. The main topic on the agenda of the L'Aquila summit in July is the stabilisation of Afghanistan, but the chief subject of conversation is likely to be the heroically/disgracefully goatish behaviour of Silvio Berlusconi.
Just as President Obama ushered in a dawn of subtle, complex, individualistic world citizens, so President Berlusconi has his own counter-cultural musical hall line-up of busty women in bikinis, hypocritical bishops and goose-stepping Germans.
He is not the only European leader who behaves differently to the model we expect in this country. An Australian politician I met the other day had been puzzled by a reception he attended at the Elysée Palace. It had been an occasion for global politicians of the centre-right to discuss political principles. President Sarkozy greeted his guests and then disappeared from the room. The politicians eagerly awaited his return so that discussions could begin. After an hour or so they became restless. My Australian acquaintance helped himself to a drink and looked at the view from the window onto the courtyard. To his astonishment, he recognised Sarkozy, in a tracksuit, jogging round the edge. The guests concluded that the explanation for such bizarre behaviour must be that Sarkozy was French.
President Sarkozy is married to a chic woman who records pretentious songs. He is clever, charming, vain, and tried to marginalise the British over D-Day. Because he is French. Similarly, if any politician is going to get away with a cabinet of chorus girls, he will probably be Italian. Remember, Emperor Nero was quite popular with his people. In a country famous for its pornographic television, for its indifference towards the political process and for a historically lax view of rape, Berlusconi is not a freak.
Perhaps each nation gets the scandal it deserves. As a nation of shopkeepers, our greatest political earthquake centres on MPs' supermarket receipts and income tax arrangements. It makes our hearts beat faster.
Yet national stereotypes do not wholly explain why some politicians brush off scandal and others are sunk by it. Even if you share the view of those envious male bloggers who explain that "Berlusconi represents hope for all men that they will still be f*****g in their seventies", you might also acknowledge that he lacks a little dignity.
Some claim that Berlusconi is forgiven his Hugh Hefner-style indulgences because he is so very disciplined about immigration. But policies are not the key to everything. President Obama is often criticised for his policies, but remains worshipped for his charismatic cool.
The fact is that popularity is so fickle that it is indefinable. Gordon Brown cannot understand the changes in the public mood. He was loved for being gloomy and sleepless in a crisis and now he is despised for it. No wonder his election strategy is to hang on and hope for a change of wind. Look how it blew Peter Mandelson into something close to public affection.
President Berlusconi has a 60 per cent popularity rating not because the Viagra generation have voted with their feet, or because Italy is essentially a land of unclothed women and priapic men. His appeal is intangible. That is what makes it so galling for British politicians. There are no lessons to be learned.
Sarah Sands is deputy editor of the 'London Evening Standard'
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sarah-sands/sarah-sands-will-old-goat-be-on-the-menu-at-berlusconis-summit-1722251.html
Silvio Berlusconi: how does he do it?
Oh, Silvio!: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gestures in front of an image reading: 'I don't give up' With every breaking scandal, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wins over more of his countrymen's hearts and votes.
By Tobias Jones Published: 11:31 PM BST 27 Jun 2009
To most of us it seems extraordinary that Silvio Berlusconi is still prime minister of Italy. There can't be many politicians who could survive the sort of scandals he's been through: accusations of perjury, perverting the course of justice, proximity to the Mafia, accusations of membership of a sinister masonic lodge, of tax evasion and of corrupting public officials. And now, on top of all that, it has been discovered that he's been enjoying Dionysian parties with dozens of young girls at both of his Sardinian and Roman villas.
This time he doesn't even deny the central allegations. Not surprisingly, perhaps, since there's overwhelming evidence of what went on: there are photographs of topless girls in G-strings lounging around his villa, there are wiretaps of businessmen lining up escort girls for Silvio's parties. One escort has revealed she was given only half her "appearance fee" because she didn't stay the night (she didn't make that mistake again). The question isn't did he or didn't he, but simply: how on earth does he get away with it? How is it that a country we think of as a close neighbour, which we all think we know so well, has such a different morality to ours?
This time he doesn't even deny the central allegations. Not surprisingly, perhaps, since there's overwhelming evidence of what went on: there are photographs of topless girls in G-strings lounging around his villa, there are wiretaps of businessmen lining up escort girls for Silvio's parties. One escort has revealed she was given only half her "appearance fee" because she didn't stay the night (she didn't make that mistake again). The question isn't did he or didn't he, but simply: how on earth does he get away with it? How is it that a country we think of as a close neighbour, which we all think we know so well, has such a different morality to ours?
The answer lies largely in the fact that Italians suffer from scandal-fatigue. Ever since the First Republic was swept away under a tsunami of corruption allegations in the early Nineties, the country has been awash with scandal. It's as if there's no normality left against which to judge wrongdoing.
Open any Italian newspaper and you're likely to see pages and pages of breathtaking allegations and furious denials. On any day you choose you'll be able to read the leaked details of an ongoing investigation, astonishing wiretap intercepts and interviews with "key witnesses". It might be about the implosion of Parmalat, the dairy company, or about Luciano Moggi's machinations with Serie A referees, or about the murky security sector within Telecom Italia. There are so many scandals that public discourse is often little more than mud-slinging, and after a while people don't notice the real dirt anymore. As my Venetian uncle-in-law memorably told me years ago: "It's not that mud doesn't stick; it's that there's so much of it that it doesn't matter if it does."
There's also the fact that some Italians have a slightly different attitude towards fidelity. It may be because Catholicism is so voluptuous and forgiving compared with our austere puritanism; or else because the women, and men, seem so irresistibly attractive; or maybe it's because so many television shows have men of retirement age surrounded by showgirls in bikinis ... Whatever the reason, there's little outrage about an old, married man flirting with teenage wenches.
If anything there's envy of, and admiration for, his harem. It's telling that Berlusconi's line of defence last week wasn't Bill Clinton's outright denial: "I did not have sex with that woman." Instead, using a defence that would only work in a country where the male conqueror is more admired than the faithful husband, he simply said he hadn't paid for the sex because that would detract from the thrill of the conquest.
If anything, Berlusconi's libidinous exploits appear to enable the electorate to identify with him more closely. They make him appear a man of the people. Before Berlusconi's entry into Italian politics, the country's parliament was largely dominated by elderly grey men who were measured and refined, but also distant, aloof and superior. Berlusconi, by contrast, has always presented himself as a uomo qualunque, an Ordinary Joe. People seem to admire him for his refusal to watch his step, for the fact that he can never be anything other than a bull in a china shop. We foreigners find his show-boating and back-slapping and gestures and jokes rather cringey, but in Italy they all make him seem somehow normal, part not of a snooty elite but of the people, part of the sacred popolo. He is, says the propaganda, a man just like you, a simple man who loves money and sex.
The difference is, of course, that he has a lot more of both. But even the fact that he's a billionaire doesn't seem to alienate the voters. Paradoxically, many people believe that his vast wealth means that he can't be bought or corrupted. Indeed, whenever he's been accused of corruption, the accusation hasn't been that he's had his fingers in the till but precisely the opposite, that he was buying people rather than being bought. It's a subtle difference and it enables him to present himself as a man making financial sacrifices for the good of the country. You might not believe it, and I certainly don't, but millions of voting Italians clearly do.
And even if they didn't, there's the vexed question of whom else they would vote for. With Berlusconi you know, for better or for worse, what you're getting. If you vote for the Left, you've no idea what or whom you'll end up with. In the 10 years since I first moved to Italy, the Left has been led by, off the top of my head, Prodi, D'Alema, Amato, Rutelli, Fassino, Prodi again, Veltroni, Franceschini … and now they're about to start the electoral process for a new leader. There's something about the Left that is still reminiscent of the old-fashioned trasformismo, of the musical chairs of politics where everyone swaps places but no chair is ever taken away. It's the same merry-go-round of familiar faces, most of them decent enough but shockingly dull and very uninspiring. Next to Berlusconi, they seem short of red blood cells, short of chutzpah and charisma and cunning.
And it's cunning, of course, for which Berlusconi is truly admired. Being furbo – cunning or sly – isn't a slur in Italy; it's a sign that you can outsmart the rest, that you're clever enough to get away with it. Every time Berlusconi survives a scandal, his stock rises yet higher because people are in awe of how he does it. He's like Houdini, calmly shrugging off the shackles that magistrates and journalists and opposition politicians keep trying to put him in.
That admiration for his escapism suggests there's something about the moral geography in Italy that is simply different to our own. It's summed up in one of the adjectives most often applied to Berlusconi: spregiudicato. It's one of those words that is almost impossible to translate because it seems to have two contradictory meanings: both unconventional and unscrupulous. It implies someone who's without prejudice, a person who thinks for himself, a daring maverick. But it also means someone who disregards the rules, someone who rides roughshod over manners and etiquette and the accepted way of doing things. It sounds more of a criticism put like that, but in Italy the word is usually a compliment, especially when applied to the prime minister.
Funnily enough, that moral chasm between Italy and the rest of the world also helps Berlusconi maintain his grip on power. The more he's criticised abroad (and, let's be fair, barely a day goes by without some foreign publication putting the boot into the Italian electorate and their chosen leader), the more he plays the patriotic card. While the opposition quotes eagerly from the "authoritative" publication, Berlusconi accuses them of betrayal and portrays himself – another role with which so many identify – as the down-trodden victim, the hard-done-by Italian of old whom all foreigners love to hate. A lot of Italians are fed up of finger-wagging moralists from northern Europe telling them whom they should elect and, I suspect, vote Berlusconi almost as a declaration of independence. After centuries of being ruled by foreign powers – the papal states, the Habsburgs, the Bourbons and so on – they're determined that foreigners should keep out of their affairs. Especially the many affairs of their Prime Minister.
Open any Italian newspaper and you're likely to see pages and pages of breathtaking allegations and furious denials. On any day you choose you'll be able to read the leaked details of an ongoing investigation, astonishing wiretap intercepts and interviews with "key witnesses". It might be about the implosion of Parmalat, the dairy company, or about Luciano Moggi's machinations with Serie A referees, or about the murky security sector within Telecom Italia. There are so many scandals that public discourse is often little more than mud-slinging, and after a while people don't notice the real dirt anymore. As my Venetian uncle-in-law memorably told me years ago: "It's not that mud doesn't stick; it's that there's so much of it that it doesn't matter if it does."
There's also the fact that some Italians have a slightly different attitude towards fidelity. It may be because Catholicism is so voluptuous and forgiving compared with our austere puritanism; or else because the women, and men, seem so irresistibly attractive; or maybe it's because so many television shows have men of retirement age surrounded by showgirls in bikinis ... Whatever the reason, there's little outrage about an old, married man flirting with teenage wenches.
If anything there's envy of, and admiration for, his harem. It's telling that Berlusconi's line of defence last week wasn't Bill Clinton's outright denial: "I did not have sex with that woman." Instead, using a defence that would only work in a country where the male conqueror is more admired than the faithful husband, he simply said he hadn't paid for the sex because that would detract from the thrill of the conquest.
If anything, Berlusconi's libidinous exploits appear to enable the electorate to identify with him more closely. They make him appear a man of the people. Before Berlusconi's entry into Italian politics, the country's parliament was largely dominated by elderly grey men who were measured and refined, but also distant, aloof and superior. Berlusconi, by contrast, has always presented himself as a uomo qualunque, an Ordinary Joe. People seem to admire him for his refusal to watch his step, for the fact that he can never be anything other than a bull in a china shop. We foreigners find his show-boating and back-slapping and gestures and jokes rather cringey, but in Italy they all make him seem somehow normal, part not of a snooty elite but of the people, part of the sacred popolo. He is, says the propaganda, a man just like you, a simple man who loves money and sex.
The difference is, of course, that he has a lot more of both. But even the fact that he's a billionaire doesn't seem to alienate the voters. Paradoxically, many people believe that his vast wealth means that he can't be bought or corrupted. Indeed, whenever he's been accused of corruption, the accusation hasn't been that he's had his fingers in the till but precisely the opposite, that he was buying people rather than being bought. It's a subtle difference and it enables him to present himself as a man making financial sacrifices for the good of the country. You might not believe it, and I certainly don't, but millions of voting Italians clearly do.
And even if they didn't, there's the vexed question of whom else they would vote for. With Berlusconi you know, for better or for worse, what you're getting. If you vote for the Left, you've no idea what or whom you'll end up with. In the 10 years since I first moved to Italy, the Left has been led by, off the top of my head, Prodi, D'Alema, Amato, Rutelli, Fassino, Prodi again, Veltroni, Franceschini … and now they're about to start the electoral process for a new leader. There's something about the Left that is still reminiscent of the old-fashioned trasformismo, of the musical chairs of politics where everyone swaps places but no chair is ever taken away. It's the same merry-go-round of familiar faces, most of them decent enough but shockingly dull and very uninspiring. Next to Berlusconi, they seem short of red blood cells, short of chutzpah and charisma and cunning.
And it's cunning, of course, for which Berlusconi is truly admired. Being furbo – cunning or sly – isn't a slur in Italy; it's a sign that you can outsmart the rest, that you're clever enough to get away with it. Every time Berlusconi survives a scandal, his stock rises yet higher because people are in awe of how he does it. He's like Houdini, calmly shrugging off the shackles that magistrates and journalists and opposition politicians keep trying to put him in.
That admiration for his escapism suggests there's something about the moral geography in Italy that is simply different to our own. It's summed up in one of the adjectives most often applied to Berlusconi: spregiudicato. It's one of those words that is almost impossible to translate because it seems to have two contradictory meanings: both unconventional and unscrupulous. It implies someone who's without prejudice, a person who thinks for himself, a daring maverick. But it also means someone who disregards the rules, someone who rides roughshod over manners and etiquette and the accepted way of doing things. It sounds more of a criticism put like that, but in Italy the word is usually a compliment, especially when applied to the prime minister.
Funnily enough, that moral chasm between Italy and the rest of the world also helps Berlusconi maintain his grip on power. The more he's criticised abroad (and, let's be fair, barely a day goes by without some foreign publication putting the boot into the Italian electorate and their chosen leader), the more he plays the patriotic card. While the opposition quotes eagerly from the "authoritative" publication, Berlusconi accuses them of betrayal and portrays himself – another role with which so many identify – as the down-trodden victim, the hard-done-by Italian of old whom all foreigners love to hate. A lot of Italians are fed up of finger-wagging moralists from northern Europe telling them whom they should elect and, I suspect, vote Berlusconi almost as a declaration of independence. After centuries of being ruled by foreign powers – the papal states, the Habsburgs, the Bourbons and so on – they're determined that foreigners should keep out of their affairs. Especially the many affairs of their Prime Minister.
* Tobias Jones is the author of 'The Dark Heart of Italy'. His new book, 'The Salati Case', is published by Faber this week http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5664474/Silvio-Berlusconi-how-does-he-do-it.html
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