Public interest in Berlusconi soap opera shows no sign of abating

LETTER FROM ROME: The Italian PM’s alleged womanising may eventually reduce him to international ridicule, writes PADDY AGNEW…

LETTER FROM ROME:The Italian PM's alleged womanising may eventually reduce him to international ridicule, writes PADDY AGNEW

AT THE end of a long, hot and polemical summer in which Italian public life has done its very best to live up to its cliched billing as Opera Buffo, Italians have a right to wonder what will come next in the turbulent life and times of this country. So then, what next?

As always these days, one man, and one alone, has been at the centre of the turbulence – prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, of course.

From the spring through the summer, we have moved by turns from the news that his wife, Veronica Lario, was seeking a divorce, partly motivated by his “relations” with a Neapolitan 18-year-old, to reports that the 72-year-old prime minister had regularly entertained prostitutes for wild sex parties at his Rome and Sardinian homes.

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Last week, the story moved on apace, becoming, if possible, more serious and more absurd. Last Wednesday, lawyers for Berlusconi sued the daily L’Unita, once the old communist party organ and still close to the current Democratic Party (PD), seeking €3 million in damages for “defamation”.

An indication of the nature of this particular litigation comes from the “denuncia” presented by the prime minister’s lawyer, Fabio Lepri, who claims that articles published by L’Unita paint a less than flattering picture of Berlusconi: “He is presented as someone that he certainly is not . . . He is described as a person who has problems getting an erection, who relies on mysterious injections and who demands sexual favours in return for a post in government or an electoral candidacy . . . ”

Oscar-winning comedian Roberto Benigni brought the house down at the annual PD summer festival in Genoa the next day when he pointed out that the prime minister might have some difficulty arguing his case, or proving his point, in front of a judge: “I mean, Silvio, in front of a judge it’s sort of difficult to do certain things.”

All of this might seem like more Opera Buffo but critics argue it is much more serious than that.

Concita De Gregorio, editor of L'Unita, claims that the prime minister's real intention is to "strangle an opposition voice" by forcing the newspaper out of business.

This latest case comes at the end of a summer when Berlusconi has kept his lawyers busy – suing, among others, the Spanish daily El Pais, French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, and the Rome daily La Repubblica.

The case against La Repubblica, which is alleged to have slandered the prime minister because of its daily publication of 10 questions calling on him to explain various "relationships" with young women, has prompted concern that, once again, Berlusconi intends to silence his critics.

More than 255,000 people, including writer Umberto Eco, film directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Nanni Moretti, writer Alessandro Baricco and Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo have signed an online petition in defence of “press freedom”.

Even as the “press freedom” lobby confirmed it will take to the streets on September 19th in protest, the prime minister merely added to their concerns when suggesting last Friday that “poor Italy” was badly served by a printed press that carried “the opposite of reality”.

Earlier in the week, speaking in Gdansk, Poland, where European leaders were recalling the 70th anniversary of the start of the second World War, Berlusconi had given a further indication of his vision of the role of the media when he threatened to block EU decision-making unless commissioners and their spokespeople were barred from speaking publicly.

His remarks were in response to alleged commission criticism of Italy’s handling of clandestine immigration.

On Thursday of last week, however, Berlusconi found himself further embroiled in media wars when Dino Boffo, editor of daily L'Avennire, run by the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference, resigned after a week of bitter polemics and accusations.

Seemingly irritated by the (in truth, relatively mild) criticisms from the Catholic daily of Berlusconi’s private life, the Berlusconi family-owned daily, Il Giornale, pointed out that Boffo had been convicted of harassing a woman with whose (male) partner he had had an affair.

The implication was that Boffo (and indeed the Catholic Church) had no business taking the moral high ground with anyone.

Curiously, and for reasons that may be partly linked to an internal power struggle between the Holy See and the bishops’ conference, the church’s defence of Boffo was at best half-hearted.

In the end, while protesting his innocence and arguing that he was the victim of a fiercely hostile media campaign, Boffo felt obliged to resign, leaving Berlusconi to look like the winner, at least temporarily.

It’s reasonable to say temporarily, because there are those who feel that this latest church-State altercation might signal the end of the Italian church’s 15-year-long tacit support of Berlusconi’s right-wing forces – a support that looks for favourable legislation on euthanasia, on treatment of the terminally or long-term ill (ie, no plug-pulling) and on Catholic school funding by way of kickback.

But all that remains to be seen. What is sure, for now, is that the row prompted the Vatican last week to call off a dinner appointment featuring Berlusconi and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state.

At a time when Italy, like every other developed country in the world, is struggling to deal with the negative fallout from the global economic downturn, Italians are entitled to be just a tad apprehensive.

Has their prime minister truly got his eye on the ball? Or is he, in the words of his wife Veronica Lario, in danger of “looking ridiculous before the world”?

This is one story that is sure to run and run.