Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Berlusconi Just Loves Berlusconi

By Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2006
ROME - One day he likens himself to Napoleon. A few days later, it's none 
other than Jesus Christ.
The irrepressible Silvio Berlusconi, surgically enhanced prime minister and 
Italy's richest man, is running for reelection. And despite a record of 
embarrassing public gaffes, disastrous economic performance and unpopular 
foreign policies, he stands a decent chance of winning.
Berlusconi is leading a center-right coalition of parties into the April 
9-10 vote against a center-left alliance headed by Romano Prodi, an ex-prime 
minister and a former European Commission president. Polls have fairly 
consistently given Prodi a four-point lead, but experts caution that the 
race is too close to call, especially given Berlusconi's ability to dominate 
the media - a large portion of which he and his family own.
In a campaign that has largely avoided pressing issues, Berlusconi managed 
to win what amounted to an endorsement from President Bush and a rare 
opportunity to speak before the U.S. Congress early this month. Although 
Bush is unpopular in Italy, Berlusconi has used his friendship with the 
president to prove his importance on the world stage.
And many Italians buy it. They laugh at him, or roll their eyes, but they 
also, begrudgingly or not, admire his successes. He has managed to portray 
his many legal troubles, including calls Friday for yet another indictment, 
as a plot by communist judges and prosecutors out to get him. Even his 
embarrassing comments he later blames on leftist journalists out to get him.
"He's a megalomaniac," said supporter Giuliano Ferrara, editor of the Il 
Foglio newspaper, which is partly owned by the Berlusconi empire. "But he's 
also a great victimist. He knows how to act like a victim."
Berlusconi, whose hair seems to grow thicker and darker by the day, has 
acknowledged having face-lifts. A short man pushing 70, he often wears 
makeup and heels and sports a George Hamilton tan. He is known for making 
poor-taste jokes that often insult or embarrass world leaders and for 
grabbing headlines with comments such as saying he would abstain from sex 
until the election and promising to sail to Tahiti if he lost. A former 
cruise ship singer married to an ex-actress, he plans to release a new CD of 
his songs ahead of the election.
"I am the Jesus Christ of politics," he told supporters over a dinner late 
last month.
"I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for 
everyone."
And a few days before that, on a TV talk show: "We have worked a lot. Only 
Napoleon did more than me - but I am certainly taller than him."
More to the point, Berlusconi has weathered the kinds of legal storms that 
could easily terminate the average political career. The target of numerous 
corruption investigations, he stood trial while in office on bribery charges 
involving an old business deal. He is currently fending off allegations that 
he bribed a British lawyer - the husband of a British Cabinet minister - to 
lie on his behalf in yet another trial. On Friday, prosecutors in Milan said 
they were seeking an indictment in the case.
Berlusconi and his family own or control most of Italy's broadcast media and 
several newspapers, as well as insurance companies, the country's largest 
publishing house and a premier soccer team.
The media holdings, especially, represent a conflict of interest that has 
been widely condemned by European Union monitoring agencies. The 
concentration of ownership has also restricted media to the point that 
Reporters Without Borders ranked Italy as the worst country in Western 
Europe for press freedoms.
In the first two months of this year, Berlusconi appeared on TV and radio 
programs morning, noon and night. In one three-week period, Berlusconi 
appeared on television for more than five hours, compared with about 20 
minutes for Prodi, according to a public relations firm that monitors 
broadcasts. Often the prime minister was the sole guest on a chat show on a 
station he owned, in which a fawning host asked puff questions.
Berlusconi has mastered the Italian goal of maintaining the bella figura - 
looking good - while converting politics into entertainment, complete with 
the buxom blond showgirls that he famously introduced on his television 
stations.
"In a post-ideological age, what Mr. Berlusconi is selling is Mr. 
Berlusconi, not a party or program," said Alexander Stille, a journalism 
professor at Columbia University who has written several books on Italy, 
including the forthcoming "The Sack of Rome" about Berlusconi.
"The bedrock of Mr. Berlusconi's electorate has little interest in politics, 
reads little or not at all and watches a lot of television," Stille said in 
a column printed in London's Financial Times and Rome's La Repubblica. "The 
more they watch, the more likely they are to vote for Berlusconi."
Election regulations that require equal time on the airwaves for candidates 
kicked in when Parliament was dissolved last month and the campaign 
officially commenced. That came only after Berlusconi had persuaded 
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi to delay dissolving the legislature by two 
weeks.
With those two weeks, Berlusconi gained more unfettered air time. He also 
won time to pass legislation that his critics say benefited him and his 
interests. Berlusconi has long been accused of using Parliament, which his 
coalition dominates, as a personal fiefdom.
In the final weeks, Berlusconi's allies pushed through laws that weakened 
prosecutors who have so often challenged the prime minister, shortening the 
statute of limitations on white-collar crimes and limiting the ability of 
prosecutors to appeal sentences they judge as too lenient.
In December, his coalition passed a highly complicated change to electoral 
law, reintroducing proportional representation, which would limit the damage 
if the bloc fared poorly in the election. It was proposed at a time polls 
predicted Berlusconi would lose.
Berlusconi, elected in 2001, is the first Italian prime minister to finish a 
full five-year mandate since World War II, a tumultuous period of 
revolving-door governments. He rose to political power by stepping into the 
void left by a blitz of corruption scandals and aggressive prosecutions in 
the 1990s.
One result today, says Ferrara, is a rather upside-down electoral dynamic. 
Berlusconi, whom Forbes magazine rates as one of the world's most powerful 
billionaires, successfully casts himself as an anti-intellectual populist. 
Much of the center-left opposition, on the other hand, is seen as elitist 
and establishment - and dull. Its ranks contain many of the same old faces, 
including Prodi, from the remnants of traditional parties, ranging from 
reformed Communists to conservative Christian Democrats. Berlusconi, on the 
other hand, created a new party called Forza Italia, or Go Italy, a name 
reminiscent of a soccer-stadium cheer.
Against popular opinion, Berlusconi sent nearly 3,000 troops to Iraq to 
assist the U.S.-led military effort. He now promises to bring them home by 
year's end. He is also promising an assortment of gifts to voters, including 
free services and enhanced pensions to senior citizens, who make up a third 
of the electorate.
How he would pay for these perks is not clear. Italy fell into a recession 
last year, registering little or no economic growth in the last five years, 
and has a budget deficit ballooning beyond permitted EU standards.
Berlusconi shrugs off any setbacks. Asked recently if his nation's troubles 
might not spell defeat for him, he responded no. All great statesmen, he 
said, needed more than five years in office. Like Britain's Margaret 
Thatcher and Germany's Helmut Kohl, he said, he deserved 15 years in power 
to achieve his goals.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-ego13mar13,1,2022576.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Traduzione in italiano: 
http://www.isinsardegna.it/modules.php?name=News_Pro&file=article&sid=3154
-- 
«Sono stato fermati in fragranza di reato»
guidorapisarda, 15 marzo 2006 

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:4418...@news.scardovi.com...
"He's a megalomaniac," said supporter Giuliano Ferrara, editor of the Il
Foglio newspaper, which is partly owned by the Berlusconi empire. "But he's
also a great victimist. He knows how to act like a victim."
Azzz, pure cicciopotamo parla male di lui, è proprio la fine.