Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Berlusconi stares disaster in face as economy falters

Berlusconi stares disaster in face as economy falters
By Peter Popham in Rome
17 January 2004
Silvio Berlusconi, under attack from all sides, chaired his first
cabinet meeting yesterday after a month out of the public eye as he
geared up for the toughest challenges of his career.
On 24 January his political party, Forza Italia, marks its 10th
anniversary with a lavish party. The face-lift Mr Berlusconi has
reportedly had while on holiday at his villa in Sardinia and the diet
he has supposedly started may help him to appear brave for the event.
But doubts remain about the plastic surgery. No pictures of the
remodelled Prime Minister have been published. One of his ministers,
Giulio Urbani, said while leaving yesterday's cabinet meeting: "I saw
no trace of a face-lift." The Prime Minister's office has refused to
comment.
However his looks may have been transformed - "tall and blond,"
suggested one insider - it will take more than a nip and a tuck for Mr
Berlusconi to get through the next six months unscathed. After more
than two and a half years in office, the tirelessly upbeat media
billionaire is staring disaster in the face.
Economically, Italy is in deep trouble with mounting inflation,
stagnant growth and a record national debt, the opposite effect his
supporters intended when they voted the business tycoon into office
with a landslide election victory in 2002. Transport workers, seeing
their standard of living plummet, have staged a series of wildcat
strikes, bringing Milan in particular to a standstill.
Mr Berlusconi was elected with a mandate for reform, but his boldest
initiatives have all been interpreted as looking after number one:
either by helping him to escape conviction for criminal offences or to
increase the wealth of his companies.
A Bill meant to enable cases to be shifted to another judiciary if the
original bench was biased was signed into law, but the Supreme Court
refused to allow Mr Berlusconi's case to be moved. A media-reform
Bill, which would have allowed his companies to keep all three of
their television networks and increase their stake in the newspaper
market, was sent back by President Carlo Ciampi. And on Tuesday the
Constitutional Court rejected the immunity Bill designed to protect Mr
Berlusconi from prosecution as long as he remains in office, obliging
the Prime Minister to stand trial once again on a charge of having
bribed judges in the 1980s.
These matters are widely seen abroad as a sign that Italy's system of
checks and balances remains in good repair. But Mr Berlusconi views
them as further proof that the Communists, who he claimed dominate the
judiciary and the parts of the media beyond his control, are still
outrageously powerful and determined to humble him.
Mr Berlusconi is also faced with escalating discord within his
centre-right coalition, with his two main partners, the post-Fascist
Alleanza Nazionale and the populist Lega Nord, demanding a government
shuffle to give them more power.
Umberto Bossi, who heads the Lega Nord, has repeatedly threatened to
bring the government down, as he did in 1994, if his cherished
federalist plan to give more power to the wealthy north is not enacted
by the end of this month. His enemies within the government said he is
merely "baying at the moon", but acknowledge that Mr Berlusconi must
give him something.
The Parmalat scandal has caused another headache for the Prime
Minister, threatening a budget haemorrhage and requiring a substantial
reform of the way corporations are policed if Italy is not to suffer a
disastrous exodus of foreign investors.
But the Parmalat crisis has also brought the government an unexpected
boon. Giulio Tremonti, Mr Berlusconi's Finance Minister, is demanding
tough new controls over the Bank of Italy, which the government blames
for not stopping the Parmalat rot several months ago.
The Bank of Italy indirectly keeps all Italy's political parties,
except Forza Italia and the Lega Nord, afloat with generous credit. If
Mr Tremonti gets a grip on the Bank, he could turn off that tap,
threatening Mr Berlusconi's political adversaries with bankruptcy; a
billionaire in politics remains a potent force. Despite Mr
Berlusconi's problems, the possibility of an early election is not one
the opposition relishes. 
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=482013

 increase the wealth of his companies.
[ironia ON]
Siamo stufi di questa stampa estera comunista che non fa altro che attaccare
il lavoro del Nostro Premier.
[ironia OFF]
gianluca
--
"Voi volete la democrazia, povere anime?
  Ma non capite che č solo una questione aritmetica:
  piů ne esportiamo, meno ne rimane qua."
  (Corrado Guzzanti)


Guarda che Popham scrive su Liberazione e uno dei suoi scoop più famosi
sull'Italia è quello di cui si parla qui:
http://lists.peacelink.it/animali/msg14224.html
A parte che avrà già scritto un centinaio di articoli, tutti ferocemente
contro Berlusconi.
Quindi l'ironia non c'entra nulla (puoi tenerla tranquillamente OFF), tra un
Popham ed un Curzi c'è ben poca differenza....

 un Popham ed un Curzi c'è ben poca differenza....
Lo stesso dicasi tra il tuo padrone e Sbirulino. Senza ironia.
--
Socio Luigino Fan Club, tessera n. 113