Berlusconi: One of lifes mysteries.

The mystery being; how exactly did this clown get elected prime minister of a major European country?!

No seriously, this is one of the questions I've been wrangling with.

He's a billionaire and owns over 90% of all the Italian media. He's untouchable and for a time was actually legally immune. The opposition parties can't even broadcast ads in his country which is in all but name a dictatorship. Italy is a joke and nowhere close to being a democracy. We're just lucky he isn't some repressive sadist who guns down protesters like some other countries he is friends with.

While Berlusconi's long political run is due to more pulled strings than kittens in a yarn factory, his presidency doesn't surprise me. Italy's always had a bad case of Sturgeon's Law with their leaders, and their successes have usually come about in spite of, not because of who's making the orders.

From my observations, he sure seems to have a lot of leisure time for a prime minster.

I could say many things about Berlusconi but I should also shoot many insults towards a large number of fellow italians who are stupid/ignorant/uncultured/greedy (or a combination of these) enough to allow him to stay in power - seriously, a lot of openly pro-Berlusconi people I've met were the close-minded type that feed mostly on television and are as provincial as he is, despite his vanaglorious claims to be one of the world's most respected statesman. Time Magazine was right when they said that through his media power he shaped many Italians like him. There's even people really convinced that every other institution and their mother in Italy are part of an anti-B conspiracy.

However, lately it's obvious that he clings to power using all his means - come on, the three votes that saved him last December were from opposition defectors? He's also incredibly coward to make his inflammatory comments during events not related at all, or even while he is abroad on state visits.

Lastly, the problem lies also in the weak opposition parties, the main problems within Berlusconi's coalition have come from a splinter faction - however, if they had an influent tycoon on their side too, would the situation be completely different and the match more even? I think so.

I would bet my right hand he has connections to organised crime. Oh, and that media mongul thing.

Considering most money to rebuild things after the last earthquake seems to have vanished without a trace, that's pretty sure.

That earthquake showed how much of a Jerkass and Smug Snake he is. He used it as a means to boost his popularity, with frequent visits to L'Aquila, and also bringing the G8 there, but as soon it was evident there was little to no progress in the reconstruction, he started calling the angry cityzens like they were ungrateful traitors, and he hasn't made a new visit to the city for a long time now.

It's media power, definitely. The nearest equivalent to Berlusconi in the UK is Rupert Murdoch, and I'm sure he'd have no problem keeping himself in office if he ever went into politics directly. As for Berlusconi himself, I've always thought that if you know he used to be a cruise ship singer, that kind of explains everything. Can't you imagine him stalking the cabaret parlour, rocking a spangly suit and cheesy grin, asking the "beautiful ladies" for requests?

Rupert Murdoch has the sense to stay out of politics himself. He buys politicians instead.

Too true, I'm afraid. However, at least he doesn't inflict his private life on the country like Berlusconi does.

The Lybian crisis has showed how weak of a leader he is, and Italy as a whole political entity. Just six months ago he welcomed Gadafi like an emperor, and now the government hasn't lost time in joining the attack on Lybia. He has remained practically silent lately, since there's also the embarassment of his push for nuclear energy now ruined by the Fukushima crisis.

Also the Northern League, one of the main parties of his political alliance, has been constantly critical (if not downright insulting) towards the celebrations for the 150 years of unity. But after all, it's a party that, before going relatively softer, originally asked for secession of Northern Italy from the rest of the country...

Nah, it's a well-known open secret that Gadhafi and Berlusconi are buddies.

I have a low opinion of Italy. They can't even fathom conflict of interest. Concern for the public good is nonexistent. Everything is done with a handshake a wink; government transparency is considered to be a quaint pipe dream. In summary, ever since WWII, they've been broken.

But they make good pizza.

edited 21st Mar '11 6:22:40 PM by johnnyfog

So he's Rupert Murdoch, but Italian?

From Wikipedia, lol I guess he's not quite a Murdoch.

edited 21st Mar '11 6:36:45 PM by Barkey

Control of the media has little to do with Berlusconi success. His success is due to the dream that he projects, a dream where the Italian citizen is free from all the small legalised mafias that control and shape Italy. You can not really understand if you don't live in Italy but Berlusconi is not supported because of something that he says or does but because of the people that oppose him.

You mean he's only in power because of someone even worse waiting in the wings?

Yes, and they're called Italian society.

So basically 90's Mubarak without the police brutality?

He's sinking to new lows lately. After his many tiresome, ridicolous exploits were certainly a cause of the recent defeat at several important municipal elections (he blamed "weak candidates" for his side - conveniently forgetting he handpicked them), he said one of the causes was a weekly talkshow (which is also one of the most viewed programs of the national second channel) and that he would make sure it won't happnen again. The week later, the show's host has resigned. And now a reunion of the administrative board of Rai 3, the only of the three state channels that's not aligned with Berlusconi, which should have been done to decide next autumn's programming, has been canceled because of the sudden absence of the board members from Berlusconi's party. He's practically destroying state television, forcing out the people who created or hosted the network's most successful programs, just to silence it.

Not only he handpicked the candidates, but his support actually damaged them. That was particularly evident in the case of the Milan elections: Moratti (the candidate of Berlusconi's coalition) was the previous major, and even though she was far from universally liked she might have had a good chance to win the elections if not for Berlusconi's claims that her opponent, Pisapia, was a "dangerous communist" who would have turned Milan into a "Islamic gipsy camp" (yeah, I know I mentioned this already somewhere, but it was just so stupid that I had to mention it again).

I am actually cautiously optimistic right now. Berlusconi's coalition is showing quite some cracks; if this Sunday's referendums, in which Italian citizen vote on whether to cancel a few laws that Berlusconi supported, pass, I'd consider it very likely that the "Northern League" party*

edited 10th Jun '11 6:06:54 AM by Carciofus

He probably thought that his TV speech during the days before the ballots (which costed a severe fine to the networks that aired it, since it broke the parity rule about all sides getting the same exposition), and his idiotic rant to Obama (who looked understandably not amused)), would be a display of his power and influence but, as many other things lately, they have probably turned into boomerangs on the short/middle run.

By the way, twice lately the news programs of his (owned or politically controlled) channels have made errors about the upcoming referendum, mistaking dates or the questions. Obviously nobody believes they were casual.

Sometimes I really wonder what there is so convenient in Italy for leaders of other countries to keep it in the weakened state it is, with Berlusconi at the helm, if he lost their support he'd balk even more. He is malleable and easily persuaded but, in his deteriorated mental state (let's say things for what thy are), they risk creating a loose cannon - imagine if he did something really embarassing at some international meeting.

Hey, its not the rest of the worlds fault for Berlusconi.

God's I hope he fails and burns, when is the next big election?

Twice? I know of the first one, about the "mistaken" dates, but I must have missed the other.

Then again, I am not in Italy right now and I do not usually watch TV news even when in Italy — the quality of televised information is, frankly, utterly pathetic, so I prefer to get my information from newspapers.

edited 10th Jun '11 7:14:45 AM by Carciofus

I think the secret ot his power is that the opposition kinda learned from the cold war not to try too hard to actually practise democracy in Italy.