Hadn’t he already Berlus-gone-i?

Phillip Hawkes

**The weather’s getting cold, even here in Italy. Perfect conditions for a bit of a sniffle, or perhaps even worse. Some will have been luckier than others. I think we can all remember having an infection of some sort that simply will not go away.
**

Now if we move this idea of an annoying viral infection to Italian politics, we’ll get a very good idea indeed of what is going on right now.

So Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, has been given the thumbs down from Italy’s main party on the right, People of Freedom, for seemingly not doing enough to stem a crisis that had developed and matured well before he’d taken office. Cue the re-emergence of a certain Silvio Berlusconi.

This man brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘bouncebackability’. He’s 76 years old (with suspiciously not a single grey hair on his head), has already been Prime Minister on no less than three occasions and this will be a sixth time he has run for that office.

Now it’s always nice to see a political comeback. Franklin. D Roosevelt was the Vice Presidential Candidate in 1920, on the losing ticket of one of the biggest landslides in American political history, and he ended up alright. Some kind souls might even have a sparkle of sympathy for Silvio. He is twice divorced, and only this week it was announced he will be paying his ex-wife, Veronica Lario, 36 million Euros a year. But really, he doesn’t help himself. He is embroiled in a seemingly never ending series of fraud and sex scandals, most notably for underage prostitution, abuse of power and tax evasion. Evidence of mafia collusion and an apologetic tone for Benito Mussolini and fascism certainly don’t help his case.
Now some of the trials are still ongoing, but it has to be asked what on earth the good Italian people see in a 76 year old billionaire who has made a mockery of his country over the last 20 years? His embarrassing gaffes whilst in office were endless, from suggesting that the homeless victims of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake should treat their plight as a camping holiday, to joking that it would be impossible to prevent rape in Italy, as Italian women are so beautiful.

These errors are degrading, but his heavy involvement with Italy’s main mass media company, Mediaset, is worrying. It means that on three national television channels, you won’t really find much criticism of Berlusconi, and there is an awful lot to criticise. In the most recent Press Freedom Index, Italy was ranked a dismal 61st, just ahead of Central African Republic and Sierra Leone. It is suggested by this index that there are “noticeable problems” with press freedom in Italy. If an established western democracy has “noticeable problems,” what sort of message does this give to the developing world where corruption is traditionally rampant, especially countries looking to the future after the Arab Spring? Berlusconi has a lot to answer for.

Even as a former Prime Minister, he still has a responsibility to represent the Italian people. So when he’s heard referring to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, as “an unfu*kable fat c*nt”, people are going to presume that all Italians are equally vulgar. This is absolutely untrue, the vast majority of Italians whom I’ve met and have discussed Berlusconi with, have been disgusted by his behaviour. One girl told me how, during her Erasmus year in Turkey, after hearing that Berlusconi had resigned as Prime Minister, all her Italian friends set out to the streets to celebrate.

Berlusconi is a fascinating figure, and in some ways is to be admired for bringing something new to politics: personality. Yet what this comes down to is the accountability of politicians. In a world where unelected leaders of financial institutions have more and more influence on our lives, the current Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, is the classic example of what is wrong with modern politics, by the simple fact that he is unelected and his accountability is overwhelmingly towards financial leaders who want debt reduction, as opposed to the Italian people who are being crushed by austerity. But a return to Berlusconi is hardly the solution. How can a man with a net worth of nearly $6 billion, who is facing and has faced dozens of charges of fraud, abuse of power and soliciting sex with minors, and who owns a huge proportion of the Italian media, possibly relate to the common man, especially in these difficult times Italians are facing?

Silvio and Mario will both contest next year’s election, for the right wing People of Freedom and the centrist Monti’s Agenda for Italy respectively. This is not a rallying cry that the Left must win if Italy is to survive, however all politicians must be directly accountable to the people that elect them if a fair society is to flourish. With his immense wealth and control over the Italian media, Berlusconi is a prime example of someone who has neither the desire nor need to listen to those very people, and that is a very frightening prospect.