This is really a fascinating, and at times funny, article on Italy's Prime Minister. Some of the stuff about this guy is surreal - it almost reads like something out of a Federico Fellini script...
... Ah, la dolce vita del nostro Ceasare moderno (sorry if I butchered it, my Italian sucks)
I usually don't copy comments from readers (because they are usually written by idiots) but these ones are good:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/631664
A little of Berlusconi's schtick goes a long way in Italy
The sexual bragging, repartee, childish hijinks all reflect the culture of sports bars and, yes, it works
May 09, 2009 04:30 AM
STAR FILE PHOTOS: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and some of the many women in his life: lower left, cabinet minister Mara Carfagna; top left, his wife Veronica Lario; and aspiring teen actor Noemi Letizia.
Comments on this story (5)
Sandro Contenta
FEATURE WRITER
Silvio Berlusconi's gaffes multiply so quickly that some take a while to muscle their way through the pack and make their presence known.
There was the Italian prime minister this week, serious and stern on a television talk show, dismissing the sexual trail of innuendo that led to his wife, Veronica Lario, publicly demanding a divorce.
Never, he insisted, did he "consort with minors," to use his wife's suggestive words. And no, he doesn't appoint long-legged former starlets, including to his cabinet, "for the entertainment of the emperor" again, his wife's words.
But as the show was being taped, a video emerged of Berlusconi touring the ruins of the April earthquake in Abruzzo, which killed nearly 300 people. It shows him posing for a picture with firemen in front of a damaged church. He suddenly looks at the only woman in the group an attractive local official and loudly says, "Can I feel up the lady a bit?"
The reaction everyone laughed, including the official partly explains why this and other gaffes might best be placed in quotation marks. Rarely have they hurt Berlusconi's popularity.
For a country synonymous with style and culture, where inelegance is treated as a public crime, it's a wonder that a man who revels in playing the fool can be elected Italian prime minister not once, but three times.
Chalking it up to a macho society one writer calls Italy "the country feminism forgot" is accurate, but simplistic. It doesn't explain the multiple corruption scandals Berlusconi has survived and the non-sexist gaffes he gets away with, from comparing himself to Jesus Christ to describing U.S. President Barack Obama as "handsome and tanned."
In the club of developed democracies, the 72-year-old prime minister is a phenomenon. Conflict-of-interest laws alone would prevent his coming to power in most democracies. But in Italy, he flourishes.
Italy's deeply corrupt post-war political culture made him one of the country's wealthiest citizens. A media mogul with a near monopoly on television, he has long been accused of fashioning the country in his image by influencing political coverage and feeding Italians an endless extravaganza of kitsch and flesh.
The relationship, however, is symbiotic. The late Italian singer and actor, Giorgio Gaber, perhaps said it best: "It's not the Berlusconi in him that I fear, it's the Berlusconi in me."
Says Franco Ferrarotti, a dean of Italian sociology: "This man somehow represents the secret dreams of most people."
By no means does Berlusconi get a free ride. Italy has been sharply divided between left- and right-wing political parties since the end of World War II. Many Italians would love to see Berlusconi in jail.
His only majority government victory in 2008 was propelled by farcical infighting of the left-wing coalition he unseated. For Italians in search of stability they have had 62 governments since 1945 Berlusconi was the only alternative.
His right-wing People of Freedom coalition quickly abolished property taxes on primary residences. With an estimated 80 per cent of Italians owning their own home, the move was wildly popular.
But his appeal runs deeper. He seems the walking embodiment of an Italian proverb that speaks volumes about the national character: Fatta la legge, trovato l'inganno. It describes laws and the ways to avoid them coming to life at exactly the same time. Income tax evasion alone amounts to $300 billion, according to one estimate.
"The national sport is to violate the law. If you obey the law diligently, you have to be careful not to be seen as a fool," Ferrarotti says in a telephone interview from Rome.
It's still not clear how a man who began as a crooner on a cruise ship came to own a construction and media empire worth an estimated $7.6 billion. Suspicions of Mafia money laundering linger.
Once in power, he passed laws that helped him avoid a series of corruption trials. Many Italians took them in stride. Who wouldn't play the system to protect their interests?
They even express relief. They expect politicians to stuff their pockets. But with Berlusconi, a common refrain goes something like this: "He's so rich he doesn't have to steal." (Because he already has, his critics add.)
Much of his money is in sales; he controls 60 per cent of the television advertising market. But the product he sells best is himself. He introduced a politics of personality to a country run by a technical cabal for decades.
His personal fastidiousness is almost a parody of image-based politics: Heels to look taller, impeccable double-breasted suits, a permanent tan, a facelift and a hair transplant. And why not, Italians say. Looking good la bella figura is a national obsession.
Before his hair transplant, one of his magazines retouched a photo to cover his bald spot. More serious are the examples of critical journalists and satirists banned from the public RAI network, which he controls as prime minister, and the main private channels, which he owns. Italians spend an average of four hours a day watching TV, dominated by soap operas and showgirls.
"In the Berlusconian world, there is no difference between reality and what is sold as reality," says Paolo Guzzanti, a former senator and MP with Berlusconi's party. "Berlusconi's criteria is always the same: Packaged little asses and packaged little minds."
He also transformed Italy's tedious political discourse. The owner of the storied AC Milan soccer team, he uses the banter of soccer fans as a model, says Sergio Romano, a former Italian ambassador and a leading political analyst.
The sexual bragging, the repartee, the childish hijinks (he once made the cuckold horn sign with his fingers behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister) all reflect the language and behaviour in sports bars, Romano adds. And fans in this soccer-crazed country get it.
"Berlusconi has always behaved improperly quote, unquote," Romano says from Milan, the city were Berlusconi made his fortune. "He seems to delight in doing it. He seems to think his faux pas are part of his charm, part of his capacity to seduce.
"We've always felt that it wasn't the proper thing to do," he says, referring to political observers. "But when we look at the polls we realize that Berlusconi doesn't lose because of it. And sometimes, he gains."
Some accuse Berlusconi of megalomania. He has, after all, compared himself to Napoleon. But with his latest sex-charged peccadilloes, "he may have overdone it," Romano says.
The Catholic Church isn't pleased he's heading for his second divorce. Mothers also enjoy iconic status in Italy, and the image of a scorned and suffering Lario with three adult children attracts empathy, Romano adds.
Berlusconi and Lario have been married 19 years. He met her when she was acting topless in a play. Tensions in the marriage became public two years ago.
Berlusconi flirted at a reception with a starlet, Mara Carfagna. He said he would marry her if he were single. Lario demanded a public apology and got it.
Carfagna is a former Miss Italy who worked as a showgirl on Berlusconi's TV stations. After the reception, she ended up in his political party. Last spring, Berlusconi appointed her minister of equal opportunities.
Last summer, wiretap transcripts emerged of Berlusconi thanking a TV producer for giving jobs to the attractive actresses he recommended "my girls" the prime minister called them. A political rival called him a "pimp." Rumours of graphic sex talk in unpublished transcripts swept the country.
Comedian Sabina Guzzanti then attacked Berlusconi at a rally in Rome, shouting into the microphone: "You can't make someone equal opportunity minister just because she's..." (and here she used a slang face for oral sex)." Carfagna sued for libel.
The issue of competence re-emerged last week. A group aligned with Berlusconi's coalition criticized the presence of young and attractive female candidates with no political experience on the party's list for European elections in June.
Lario sent an email to a news agency, suggesting her husband uses his political party as a harem. She asked for a divorce days later when it emerged that Berlusconi had attended the birthday party of Noemi Letizia, an 18-year-old aspiring actress who calls him "daddy."
A poll published Wednesday in the Roman daily La Repubblica found 66 per cent of those surveyed still expressing "confidence" in the prime minister.
But even Italians might eventually wonder who is minding the recession while the prime minister sorts out his personal life.
Italians describe their country as a bel casino a beautiful mess. But with the example Berlusconi sets, some might argue the literal translation is more appropriate a beautiful brothel.
Comments on this story are moderated:
A great snapshot!:
I was born in Italy & just recently moved to Canada. I couldn't agree more with your description of berlusconi & of Italy. I have never followed Italian politics like I have now, living in Canada. Sadly, there's no "worthy" news covered in Italy. Sometimes I feel embarrassed to be Italian because of this pooor image presented. If anyone likes to know about Italian politcs & berlusconi, go to www.beppegrillo.it/en
Submitted by Gianluca at 9:17 PM Saturday, May 09 2009
Would you do it?:
Yes he is just living the way most of us would like to but either resist it for what ever reasons or can't afford it. Yes folks he is just being a gip. And how and why he can do it at such high level (prez of country? Simple they let him and like it at the same time. At least enough of them. Can you imagine our current Pm doin this?
Submitted by saabrules at 3:13 PM Saturday, May 09 2009
What's strange?:
it's a wonder that a man who revels in playing the fool can be elected Italian prime minister not once, but three times.===========George bush was president twice. Nothing about politics is shocking after that.
Submitted by OneCanuk at 12:26 PM Saturday, May 09 2009
"It's Good to be King":
Words ala Mel Brookes - from some long ago comedy. How sad that the word "Comedy" and "government" can be spoken in the same sentence (I'm making reference to this article, I think)
Submitted by G. Reaper at 9:49 AM Saturday, May 09 2009
I couldn't have said it better myself!:
I am of italian origin and have gone back to Italy many times.My view of Berlusconi and Italy is exactly like yours..Berlusconi, the country obsession of 'looking good',the non existing feminism..(it's a man's world)) soap operas and showgrils they really do exist!One good thing about it...the food is really good!
Submitted by landrover1 at 5:57 AM Saturday, May 09 2009
[IMG]
![[linked image]](http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f210/Timbits20/ThePushandThePull.jpg)
[/IMG]
![[linked image]](http://galeri.milliyet.com.tr/2008/7/4Siyasetin_soguk_yuzunu_isitan_kadinlar/21.jpg)
![[linked image]](http://vieuxtroyes.free.fr/t/histo/guilconq.JPG)
