Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: il timesonline  riprende in giro silvio

Knight in tarnished armour faces defeat in his final joust
By Ben Macintyre
They bank with him, buy his papers, cheer his team, but now voters are set  
to cut their losses with a billionaire leader who built an empire but  
divided the land
 
ON THE edge of Milan is the city that Silvio built. Far from the grit and  
grime of Italy’s northern commercial capital, it is an oasis of calm, an  
exclusive enclave of terracotta flats with sports complex, swimming pool  
and tinkling fountains.
This large private suburb, constructed in the 1970s and now home to 10,000  
Milanese, was the first building block of Silvio Berlusconi’s empire. With  
typical braggadocio, the young entrepreneur called it “Milano 2”. Imagine  
a developer calling his pet housing project Manchester 2 and you get a  
sense of Signor Berlusconi’s limitless self-belief.
This was never just a property investment. By buying in Milano 2 Italians  
were buying into the Berlusconi vision of the Italian Dream: glamorous,  
Americanised, expensive and artificial.
With time, the citizens of Milano 2 could not only live in houses created  
by Silvio but they could also watch Berlusconi TV stations, read his  
magazines, bank at his bank, shop at his supermarket, buy the books and  
magazines published by his company and cheer on the football team he  
owned, the mighty AC Milan. Finally, when the magnate went into politics,  
they could vote for him. A word was invented to describe this way of life:  
Berlusconismo.
But there was another, less shiny, side to Milano 2. When the young Signor  
Berlusconi announced his plan to build a smart housing estate in a muddy  
field it was pointed out that the planes from the airport flew directly  
overhead. Mysteriously the flight paths were diverted and the price of  
Milano 2 apartments leapt. It was never clear exactly where the cash for  
the project had come from; the rumours of dirty money and Mafia  
involvement were never proven but never went away. In the fragrant,  
forsythia-lined paths of Milano 2, there was something distinctly fishy.
Today, after five years in power, the longest term of any postwar Italian  
prime minister, Signor Berlusconi is fighting for his political life.  
Voting begins tomorrow and ends on Monday. The last opinion polls showed  
his coalition trailing the Centre Left, led by Romano Prodi, the former  
European Commission President, by up to five percentage points.
For the first time in his political career the man who glories in the  
nickname Il Cavaliere, the knight, seems rattled, his attempts to gain a  
last-minute advantage increasingly desperate. Big business has turned  
against him. His allies on the Right are starting to distance themselves  
and shares in Mediaset, the broadcasting company he controls, have started  
to suffer as investors anticipate his defeat.
If Il Cavaliere is unseated it could mark the end of one of Italy’s most  
extraordinary political careers. Signor Berlusconi strode the stage in  
operatic style. Brash and brilliant, like all great entrepreneurs (and  
some of the most successful politicians) he had no time for convention. If  
the rules stood in the way he went around them; he said exactly what came  
into his head (which was often unprintable); he rewarded friends and  
savaged enemies.
But after years of legal investigations, economic stagnation, offensive  
gaffes and unfulfilled promises, many Italian voters have had enough.  
Milano 2 remains Berlusconi bedrock but even here there is  
disillusionment. “I will vote for him again, of course,” said Alessandra  
Menotti, pushing her three-year-old son around a pond. “But I’m  
disappointed. He has not delivered what he promised, yet.”
Before Milano 2 Signor Berlusconi, a former cruise ship crooner and vacuum  
cleaner salesman, was just another businessman of modest means looking for  
a break. The exclusive package offered to residents of Milano 2 included a  
dedicated cable TV channel; this became the kernel of a strategy to break  
the monopoly of the state broadcaster, RAI. By the 1980s Signor Berlusconi  
had become a pioneer of commercial television, churning out soap operas  
and game shows with barely clad female hosts. Critics disdained his output  
as “pap” but the money poured in.
Today Signor Berlusconi is worth at least $12billion, making him the  
wealthiest man in Italy and the 37th richest in the world. Mediaset  
controls 63 per cent of the advertising market. His publishing company,  
Mondadori, produces more titles than any other in Italy. His brother  
controls one daily newspaper, his wife another.
The burgeoning Berlusconi empire relied heavily on the Socialist Prime  
Minister, Bettino Craxi, so when a bribery scandal in 1993 brought yet  
another government down and Signor Craxi fled to avoid prosecution, the  
tycoon set up his own political party, a new wholly owned subsidiary of  
Berlusconismo.
Forza Italia (a name derived from a football chant) was a triumph of  
marketing, reflecting his uncanny grasp of popular culture. In March 1994  
he became Prime Minister despite the conflict of interest between his  
roles as national leader and media magnate. Seven months later he was out  
of office again, and under investigation for corruption, but in 2001 he  
was triumphantly returned to power promising “a new Italian miracle”. The  
Berlusconi political brand was unstoppable. So, it seemed, were the  
lawsuits. He has been the subject of more than 90 investigations; most  
recently prosecutors called for his indictment for allegedly bribing David  
Mills, the husband of Tessa Jowell, the Culture Minister, to give  
favourable testimony in a case.
Other charges included money laundering, tax evasion and bribery. He was  
acquitted of some charges and the statute of limitations expired on  
others; convictions were overturned on appeal; charges of false accounting  
had to be dropped after they were decriminalised by his Government. Signor  
Berlusconi insisted that he was the victim of a vast left-wing judicial  
conspiracy.
His arrogance was towering and theatrical. He compared himself, variously,  
to Churchill, Napoleon and Jesus Christ. “It’s not a superiority complex”,  
he once said. “It’s an objective fact. No one is as valuable as  
Berlusconi.”
comunisti !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-- 
Ralph Barker
L.A.P. Legionario Azzurro Pagante
L.I.P.C.S. Lega Italiana Protezione Carciofo Silvio
"Io al Pil non ci ho mai creduto, non l'ho mai incontrato per strada"
silvio berlusconi 10.09.2005

 By Ben Macintyre
[..]
dovresti leggere anche l'economist e il wsj (anche se devo dire che
quest'ultimo si e' trattenuto abbastanza, ma divertente il titolo `Don
Coglioni`)
-- 
www.iuz-lab.info
http://www.iuz-lab.info/homepolitics.php