Silvio Berlusconi: Politics alla puttanesca

The Guardian, Wednesday 16 December 2009

If there are two golden rules to being Silvio Berlusconi, they are to stay in the limelight and to blame others for your own misfortunes. He achieved both this week after he was hit in the face by a man with a history of mental illness. As Italy agonised for a second day about whether the attack was a product of what the prime minister called the climate of hatred against him, Mr Berlusconi was quick to exploit from his hospital bedside the sympathy that many had expressed.

Fabrizio Cicchitto, the leader of Berlusconi's The People of Freedom party in the lower house of parliament, said the attack was primed by a "pitiless campaign of hatred". Mr Cicchitto went on to name those whom he alleged were responsible for that campaign: the newspaper La Repubblica, the news magazine L'espresso, Marco Travaglio, the author of a book about Mr Berlusconi's alleged links with the mafia, both opposition parties, and certain criminal prosecutors. That's quite a list, and to name a journalist as having anything to do with an assault by a deranged man, either directly or indirectly, is a tried and tested technique from a darker period of European history. Not content with slanderous statements, Mr Berlusconi intends to legislate. His interior minister said that the cabinet meeting tomorrow would consider two new bills restricting demonstrations and curbing "hate sites" on the internet.

Instead of seeking political scapegoats, the 73-year-old media tycoon should ask himself why 250,000 Italians flocked to a No Berlusconi Day in Rome earlier this month. In the rest of Europe and beyond, there are demonstrations against policies or governments. In Italy, people demonstrate against a prime minister not for what he represents, but for who he is. For good reason. Here is a man embroiled in sex scandals detailing his alleged use of prostitutes. Losing immunity from prosecution, he is on trial in two cases for fraud, tax evasion and bribery. And for this, he seeks to blame journalists, newspapers, and criminal prosecutors who insist on doing their job and refuse to be cowed by him.

The physical assault he sustained was vicious and nasty. But there is no evidence that the attack was organised by others. The Facebook groups that have sprung up praising the repentant assailant are tasteless, but they little warrant a clampdown on internet sites deemed to "incite violence". This is a response reminiscent of a central Asian republic. Far from humouring Mr Berlusconi's attention-grabbing antics in meetings like the G20 in London earlier this year, world leaders should start distancing themselves from such a man.