irlandese
11-12-09, 14:33
Elections expected after Silvio Berlusconi attack speech
Richard Owen in Rome
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives to meet the head of government of San Marino at Chigi Palace in Rome on November 27, 2009
Italian media have predicted that Italy is heading for early elections after Silvio Berlusconi used a speech in Germany to declare all-out war on the Italian President and the Supreme Court, the country's normally sacrosanct state institutions.
“Time's up" said the headline in the magazine L'Espresso over a photograph of a grim-faced Prime Minister. “Berlusocni smashes up everything" said the banner headline in Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo. “Berlusconi pulls everything apart" said La Stampa.
The speech, in which the Prime Minister vowed to “reform" the post-war constitution, caused uproar in Italy and widened the damaging rift between him and Gianfranco Fini, his main rival on the centre Right.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the former President, said Mr Berlusconi's outburst called into question his psychological state. “You have to evaluate whether someone who launches these kind of accusations is compos sui, master of himself" Mr Ciampi said.
“We are in an exceptional situation, a new and dangerous phase of Italian democracy" said La Repubblica. Another leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, said despite his political and commercial power Mr Berlusconi had convinced himself he was "the victim" of a conspiracy by the law, the press and the establishment, and was “taking a pickaxe" to the country's institutions out of a misplaced sense of “impotence and exasperation”.
Addressing a meeting in Bonn of fellow European Conservatives grouped in the European People's Party (EPP) Mr Berlusconi, increasingly under pressure over sex scandals, renewed corruption allegations and links to the Mafia, said he had the support of 60 per cent of Italians.
“Everyone says, ‘mamma mia, where else will we find a strong and hard Prime Minister who has balls like Berlusconi?’" he told his audience. He claimed that 80 per cent of the Italian press was left wing.
He said Italy's “left wing" judges and magistrates had mounted a “manhunt" against him and were subverting democracy by “substituting" for Parliament.
In October the Constitutional Court overturned a law passed by Mr Berlusconi last year giving himself immunity from prosecution while in office.
This allowed the resumption of two trials against him.
One was on charges of bribing David Mills, his former British tax adviser and the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, to lie for him in court during 1990s corruption trials and another involved alleged tax fraud by his company, Mediaset, over the purchase of Hollywood film rights.
“Parliament makes laws, but if the ‘party of the magistrates’ doesn't like these laws, they go to the Constitutional Court, where 11 out of 15 judges are leftists, and they throw out the laws," Mr Berlusconi said. “Sovereignty has passed from Parliament to the judiciary".
President Napolitano denounced Mr Berlusconi’s speech as “a violent attack on fundamental institutions."
Anna Finocchiaro, leader in the Senate of the Democratic Party, the main centre Left opposition party, said it was “sad" to see Mr Berlusconi “staging an indecent show for the umpteenth time, and this time what’s more on the European stage.
"His obsession with his judicial problems stops him from talking about anything else, even at an international meeting."
Mr Fini, co-founder of the ruling People of Liberty party and Speaker of the Lower House, accused the Prime Minister of “sowing dangerous confusion" abroad about Italy, remarking that Mr Berlusconi was “a helmsman who has lost his rudder".
Mr Berlusconi retorted he was “tired of hypocrisy".
Today, two jailed Mafia bosses from Palermo, Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano, are due to give evidence in Turin at an appeal by Marcello Dell’Utri, a long term associate of Mr Berlusconi, against a nine year sentence for “Mafia association".
Gaspare Spatuzzo, a Mafia supergrass, told the court last week that Giuseppe Graviano had told him in 1994 that Cosa Nostra was in league with Mr Berlusconi and Mr Dell’Utri in a deal which had placed Italy “in our hands" through the creation of Forza Italia, the party Mr Berlusconi formed to enter Italian politics.
Polls say a majority of Italians do not believe the allegations are reliable. However there is growing talk of a collapse of the centre Right leading to elections three years ahead of schedule which Mr Berlusconi would hope to win despite his mounting troubles.
National elections could be combined with regional elections already scheduled for March.
Critics of Mr Berlusconi say his divorce over sex scandals, renewed corruption allegations and his obsession with his legal problems are distracting the Government from dealing with the recession and Italy’s huge public debt, consequently damaging Italy’s image abroad, with negative repercussions for businesses.
Last week tens of thousands of people gathered in Rome to protest against Mr Berlusconi, calling on him to step down.
A spokesman for Fare Futuro, the think tank founded recently by Mr Fini, said the Mafia accusations in particular were “casting a sinister and dangerous shadow over the image of the Berlusconi Government, especially on the international stage".
Elections expected after Silvio Berlusconi attack speech - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6952892.ece)
Richard Owen in Rome
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives to meet the head of government of San Marino at Chigi Palace in Rome on November 27, 2009
Italian media have predicted that Italy is heading for early elections after Silvio Berlusconi used a speech in Germany to declare all-out war on the Italian President and the Supreme Court, the country's normally sacrosanct state institutions.
“Time's up" said the headline in the magazine L'Espresso over a photograph of a grim-faced Prime Minister. “Berlusocni smashes up everything" said the banner headline in Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo. “Berlusconi pulls everything apart" said La Stampa.
The speech, in which the Prime Minister vowed to “reform" the post-war constitution, caused uproar in Italy and widened the damaging rift between him and Gianfranco Fini, his main rival on the centre Right.
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the former President, said Mr Berlusconi's outburst called into question his psychological state. “You have to evaluate whether someone who launches these kind of accusations is compos sui, master of himself" Mr Ciampi said.
“We are in an exceptional situation, a new and dangerous phase of Italian democracy" said La Repubblica. Another leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, said despite his political and commercial power Mr Berlusconi had convinced himself he was "the victim" of a conspiracy by the law, the press and the establishment, and was “taking a pickaxe" to the country's institutions out of a misplaced sense of “impotence and exasperation”.
Addressing a meeting in Bonn of fellow European Conservatives grouped in the European People's Party (EPP) Mr Berlusconi, increasingly under pressure over sex scandals, renewed corruption allegations and links to the Mafia, said he had the support of 60 per cent of Italians.
“Everyone says, ‘mamma mia, where else will we find a strong and hard Prime Minister who has balls like Berlusconi?’" he told his audience. He claimed that 80 per cent of the Italian press was left wing.
He said Italy's “left wing" judges and magistrates had mounted a “manhunt" against him and were subverting democracy by “substituting" for Parliament.
In October the Constitutional Court overturned a law passed by Mr Berlusconi last year giving himself immunity from prosecution while in office.
This allowed the resumption of two trials against him.
One was on charges of bribing David Mills, his former British tax adviser and the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, to lie for him in court during 1990s corruption trials and another involved alleged tax fraud by his company, Mediaset, over the purchase of Hollywood film rights.
“Parliament makes laws, but if the ‘party of the magistrates’ doesn't like these laws, they go to the Constitutional Court, where 11 out of 15 judges are leftists, and they throw out the laws," Mr Berlusconi said. “Sovereignty has passed from Parliament to the judiciary".
President Napolitano denounced Mr Berlusconi’s speech as “a violent attack on fundamental institutions."
Anna Finocchiaro, leader in the Senate of the Democratic Party, the main centre Left opposition party, said it was “sad" to see Mr Berlusconi “staging an indecent show for the umpteenth time, and this time what’s more on the European stage.
"His obsession with his judicial problems stops him from talking about anything else, even at an international meeting."
Mr Fini, co-founder of the ruling People of Liberty party and Speaker of the Lower House, accused the Prime Minister of “sowing dangerous confusion" abroad about Italy, remarking that Mr Berlusconi was “a helmsman who has lost his rudder".
Mr Berlusconi retorted he was “tired of hypocrisy".
Today, two jailed Mafia bosses from Palermo, Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano, are due to give evidence in Turin at an appeal by Marcello Dell’Utri, a long term associate of Mr Berlusconi, against a nine year sentence for “Mafia association".
Gaspare Spatuzzo, a Mafia supergrass, told the court last week that Giuseppe Graviano had told him in 1994 that Cosa Nostra was in league with Mr Berlusconi and Mr Dell’Utri in a deal which had placed Italy “in our hands" through the creation of Forza Italia, the party Mr Berlusconi formed to enter Italian politics.
Polls say a majority of Italians do not believe the allegations are reliable. However there is growing talk of a collapse of the centre Right leading to elections three years ahead of schedule which Mr Berlusconi would hope to win despite his mounting troubles.
National elections could be combined with regional elections already scheduled for March.
Critics of Mr Berlusconi say his divorce over sex scandals, renewed corruption allegations and his obsession with his legal problems are distracting the Government from dealing with the recession and Italy’s huge public debt, consequently damaging Italy’s image abroad, with negative repercussions for businesses.
Last week tens of thousands of people gathered in Rome to protest against Mr Berlusconi, calling on him to step down.
A spokesman for Fare Futuro, the think tank founded recently by Mr Fini, said the Mafia accusations in particular were “casting a sinister and dangerous shadow over the image of the Berlusconi Government, especially on the international stage".
Elections expected after Silvio Berlusconi attack speech - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6952892.ece)