Silvio Berlusconi is now holding the Italian people in contempt
If it is Thursday it must be the sex tapes. No sooner had Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, laughed off his encounters with a prostitute than a tape emerges, supposedly of the pair of them having sex. The transcript is desperately lurid. For readers of a sensitive disposition, note that Mr Berlusconi asks politely if his escort, Patrizia D’Addario, would prefer coffee or tea post-coitus, and then turn the page.
This is the latest in a series of actions that are bringing the office of prime minister into disrepute. His wife began divorce proceedings after Mr Berlusconi gave a necklace to Noemi Letizia on the occasion of her 18th birthday. The Italian Foreign Minister helpfully pointed out that the age of consent was 14 in Italy. There have been reports of harems of young women invited to Mr Berlusconi’s parties in Sardinia. He has promoted young women as candidates for the European elections whose political skills were still, shall we say, in development.
With ever-keen political antennae, Mr Berlusconi has conceded that he is no saint. But he is still insisting that he will serve his full term in office, through until 2013. He is not the first political leader to take advantage of the attractions of power. But his contempt for the Italian people is now beyond dispute. The time has come, surely, when he ceases to bring calumny on himself and starts to erode the prestige of the office that he occupies.
This is a parable of a state in which the institutions of dissent are poorly developed. The formal political channels exert very little pressure; the performance from the Opposition has been lamentable. Dario Franceschini, the leader of the Democratic Party, and Massimo Donadi, of the Italy of Values party, issued perfunctory statements of synthetic outrage but the Left lacks a leader of great authority.
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Berlusconi 'sex tapes' released
And it is naive to expect too much light to be shone by newspapers and television stations whose very proprietor is the man in the limelight. Mr Berlusconi controls three national TV channels. To its great credit, L’Espresso Group, which also owns La Repubblica, has reported Mr Berlusconi’s behaviour with great clarity, unbowed by his scandalous accusation that it was “subversive” and his demand for advertisers to boycott the newspaper. The raucous democracy of a free press is uncongenial to Mr Berlusconi and he is acting in the way that is becoming his signature — as if the media, as well as politics, were part of his Sardinian estate.
It is always difficult to police the boundary between public and private life. Not everything that politicians do in private is germane to their public duty. There are genuine cultural differences in the way that different democracies treat the peccadillos of their leaders. But one of the basic functions of a democracy is that it unmasks a scoundrel. Mr Berlusconi, at the moment, is showing contempt for his people via his contempt for the women whom he befriends.
In 2006, when Mr Berlusconi was ejected from office for the second time, the new Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, promised that he would offer a governo serio — a serious government. Italy is a serious country: host of the G8, a member of Nato and of the eurozone. It does not have a serious government because it does not have a serious Prime Minister.
If it is Thursday it must be the sex tapes. No sooner had Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, laughed off his encounters with a prostitute than a tape emerges, supposedly of the pair of them having sex. The transcript is desperately lurid. For readers of a sensitive disposition, note that Mr Berlusconi asks politely if his escort, Patrizia D’Addario, would prefer coffee or tea post-coitus, and then turn the page.
This is the latest in a series of actions that are bringing the office of prime minister into disrepute. His wife began divorce proceedings after Mr Berlusconi gave a necklace to Noemi Letizia on the occasion of her 18th birthday. The Italian Foreign Minister helpfully pointed out that the age of consent was 14 in Italy. There have been reports of harems of young women invited to Mr Berlusconi’s parties in Sardinia. He has promoted young women as candidates for the European elections whose political skills were still, shall we say, in development.
With ever-keen political antennae, Mr Berlusconi has conceded that he is no saint. But he is still insisting that he will serve his full term in office, through until 2013. He is not the first political leader to take advantage of the attractions of power. But his contempt for the Italian people is now beyond dispute. The time has come, surely, when he ceases to bring calumny on himself and starts to erode the prestige of the office that he occupies.
This is a parable of a state in which the institutions of dissent are poorly developed. The formal political channels exert very little pressure; the performance from the Opposition has been lamentable. Dario Franceschini, the leader of the Democratic Party, and Massimo Donadi, of the Italy of Values party, issued perfunctory statements of synthetic outrage but the Left lacks a leader of great authority.
Related Links
Berlusconi 'sex tapes' released
And it is naive to expect too much light to be shone by newspapers and television stations whose very proprietor is the man in the limelight. Mr Berlusconi controls three national TV channels. To its great credit, L’Espresso Group, which also owns La Repubblica, has reported Mr Berlusconi’s behaviour with great clarity, unbowed by his scandalous accusation that it was “subversive” and his demand for advertisers to boycott the newspaper. The raucous democracy of a free press is uncongenial to Mr Berlusconi and he is acting in the way that is becoming his signature — as if the media, as well as politics, were part of his Sardinian estate.
It is always difficult to police the boundary between public and private life. Not everything that politicians do in private is germane to their public duty. There are genuine cultural differences in the way that different democracies treat the peccadillos of their leaders. But one of the basic functions of a democracy is that it unmasks a scoundrel. Mr Berlusconi, at the moment, is showing contempt for his people via his contempt for the women whom he befriends.
In 2006, when Mr Berlusconi was ejected from office for the second time, the new Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, promised that he would offer a governo serio — a serious government. Italy is a serious country: host of the G8, a member of Nato and of the eurozone. It does not have a serious government because it does not have a serious Prime Minister.
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