Which of us would want to share a divorce with a TV audience of millions? Silvio Berlusconi, that's who
DO YOU remember that short-lived interview that French president Nicolas Sarkozy gave to CBS's 60 Minutesin the autumn of 2007? Annoyed by a question about his divorce from his wife, Cecilia, the French president stood up abruptly, pulled off his microphone and legged it, muttering angrily.
Many of us might have reacted in the same way. After all, who wants to share the details of a private, probably painful marriage break-up with a global TV audience? Well, strange as it might seem, there is at least one person who would most certainly not have walked out of the studio - Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
On Tuesday evening, after two days when Italian news media had given huge time and attention to the decision of his wife, 52-year-old Veronica Lario, to ask for a divorce, Berlusconi demanded the right to walk into an Italian state TV studio in order to put his side of the story.
This story began last week when, in a surprise move, Lario made some very bitter comments about both the private and public Berlusconi. Firstly, she railed against the alleged intention of his Freedom Party (PDL) to run a number of glamorous young women, some of them from the world of showbiz, as candidates in the European elections.
Then, on the private front, she expressed her consternation at reports that the prime minister had attended the 18th birthday party of a blonde and pretty Neapolitan girl, Noemi Letizia. Remarkable, said Lario, when you consider that he failed to attend the 18th birthday parties of his own children. Silvio and Veronica, who have been together since 1980 and married since 1990, have three children - Barbara (24), Eleonora (22) and Luigi (20).
After two days of almost total silence, when he had said only that he was "saddened" by this "private matter", the prime minister's patience began to wear thin last Tuesday. Two things may have prompted his decision to go nationwide with his marital woes. For a start, he was clearly much annoyed (and offended) by reports that his wife had accused him of consorting "with minors". For a second, there was the worry that his marital problems and his alleged indiscretion might begin to cost him Catholic votes.
After all, Tuesday's edition of L'Avennire, the daily run by the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), had contained an implied criticism of Berlusconi when it wrote of the need for "sobriety" in public life. That criticism was echoed both by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of CEI, and a day later by German cardinal Walter Kaspar, head of the Vatican's Christian Unity department who told Turin daily, La Stampa: "Seriousness and sobriety should be a fundamental for everybody, but above all for a head of government. The downpour of polemics about candidatures and family problems certainly does not seem very positive to me."
Sensing the way the wind was blowing, Berlusconi launched into a damage-limitation exercise. He commandeered Rai's evening current affairs programme, Porta a Porta, run by Bruno Vespa, a journalist who has long been sympathetic to him. He sent his own director around to the studio, just to make sure that the backdrops, lighting and so on were suitable for the occasion.
And then he plunged in. As the opening credits rolled, Berlusconi looked tense and nervous, fidgeting with some sheets of paper in his hands and tapping his foot on the ground. As often on occasions like these, there was only one voice doing the talking. His wife, he said, had been misled by the leftist media. There had never been any intention to run "starlet" candidates; and his presence at Noemi's 18th had been done as a favour to her father, an acquaintance.
Furthermore, as for his own children's 18th birthday parties, he had spoken with them all to check it out. Neither Eleonora nor Luigi had had a party and as for Barbara, he personally had organised (and paid for) a group of her friends to travel to her party in Las Vegas as a big surprise: "I think, allowing for my commitments as prime minister, that I am a wonderful father, much loved by his children," added Berlusconi, never one to overdo modesty.
So, has he limited the damage? Prior to his marital woes, Berlusconi had been claiming a 75 per cent approval rating in the polls. But with the Catholic Church making some critical noises; with many convinced that the "leftist media plot" theory is crackpot; and with one-time supporter and former European commissioner Emma Bonino describing him as a man who "has contempt for women", is the prime minister headed for trouble?
Not so, if you believe an IPR marketing survey carried out on the morning after his TV appearance. Sixty-six per cent of those polled still had confidence in Berlusconi while 57 per cent found his televised self-defence "convincing". In other words, so far he has lost very few votes.
Now, Mr Sarkozy , that is how you use TV. None of this walking out stuff, turn it to your own advantage. Just watch the old maestro at work.