Italian politician, prime minister (1994, 20016), and entrepreneur, born in Milan, Lombardy, N Italy. After building a thriving property business, he expanded his activities to include, in his Fininvest group of companies, media, publishing, sport (he owns AC Milan Football Club), and finance. In 1993 he entered politics, founding the right-wing party Forza Italia, which was successful at the 1994 elections. He was briefly prime minister in 1994 and won the premiership again in 2001. In 2003, he faced corruption allegations relating to his business affairs and became the first serving Italian prime minister to appear in court at his own trial. The trial was halted when parliament approved a controversial law giving serving prime ministers and other holders of top state posts immunity from prosecution while in office. In January 2004 a constitutional court annulled this ruling and the trial resumed in April, ending in December with his acquittal. In May 2004, his government became the longest running administration since World War 2. He was defeated in the 2006 general election by Romano Prodi, leader of the opposition centre-left party.
Silvio Berlusconi|
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| Prime Minister of Italy | |
|---|---|
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In office 27 April 1994 – 17 January 1995 11 June 2001 — 17 May 2006 |
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| Deputy | Giulio Tremonti and Gianfranco Fini |
| Preceded by |
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Giuliano Amato |
| Succeeded by |
Lamberto Dini Romano Prodi |
| Born |
29 September 1936 Milan, Italy |
| Political party | Forza Italia |
| Spouse |
Carla Dall'Oglio (1965) Veronica Lario (1985) |
Silvio Berlusconi (help·info) (born September 29, 1936) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor. Berlusconi has twice held office as prime minister of Italy, most recently from 2001 to 2006.
Berlusconi is the founder and principal shareholder of Fininvest, the second largest Italian corporation (after Fiat), which deals in media and financial business and, most notably, comprises three national TV channels. According to Forbes magazine, Berlusconi is Italy's richest person, an allegedly self-made man (see section) with personal assets worth $11 billion (USD) in 2006, making him the world's 37th richest person. Berlusconi then formed his second and third governments, which together lasted five years--the longest in the history of the Italian Republic.
Berlusconi was leader of the centre-right coalition in the April 2006 elections, which he lost, his counterpart being again Romano Prodi.
In economics, Berlusconi has endorsed conservative policies, such as lowering taxes and generally placing lesser constraints on enterprise, in an effort to encourage growth. In social policy matters the Berlusconi government has implemented a decidedly right-wing program: passing stricter laws concerning immigration, artificial insemination and drug use.
Although many aspects of Berlusconi's life and personality are highly controversial, what probably makes him a somewhat unique case in modern politics is the issue of media ownership and control. According to Berlusconi's adversaries, the Mediaset (Fininvest's media division) TV channels have played a crucial role in his political success by airing open or "covert" propaganda during news or other information-oriented programming. The issue has become even more divisive since Berlusconi's rise to premiership, with the left accusing him of also abusing his position as premier to control the publicly owned RAI TV channels. While it must be noted that Berlusconi officially resigned from all functions in his commercial group in 1994 upon entering political office, he is still the largest shareholder, and all the key posts are held by members of his family or close collaborators.
Family background and private life
Berlusconi was raised in an upper middle-class family in Milan. Silvio was the first of three children, the others being Maria Antonietta Berlusconi (born 1943) and Paolo Berlusconi (born 1949), now both entrepreneurs. Berlusconi did not serve the standard one-year stint in the army which was compulsory at the time. Years later, Berlusconi established a durable relationship with the actress Veronica Lario (born Miriam Bartolini), with whom he had three children: Barbara (b. At this time Berlusconi was a well known entrepreneur, and his wedding was a notable social event; one of the best men for the wedding was former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, during whose government was passed a law named after Berlusconi himself.
Business career
Milano 2
Berlusconi's business career began in the building construction business in the 1960s.
Villa Casati-Stampa, Cesare Previti, and Vittorio Mangano
In 1974 Berlusconi moved with his family into Villa Casati, in Milan. A political ally of Berlusconi, Cesare Previti, acted as trustee for the orphans, and sold the Villa to Berlusconi. Villa Casati-Stampa was renamed by Berlusconi "Villa San Martino". Marcello Dell'Utri, a close friend and coworker of Berlusconi, brought into this Villa the young Mafia boss Vittorio Mangano, from Palermo (Sicily). Officially Mangano was hired by Berlusconi as his stable keeper, but he also took care of the Villa's security and sometimes took Berlusconi's children to school. Berlusconi kept Mangano as an employee despite his criminal record dating back to the 1960s, and never dismissed him even when, during his time as employee in the Villa, he was imprisoned because of convictions, and suspected of arranging the kidnapping of a friend of Berlusconi. Mangano left spontaneously in late 1976, concerned about Berlusconi's reputation, since many newspapers started making a scandal about his relationship to him. Berlusconi later stated that he was absolutely unaware of who Mangano really was when he hired him.
Fininvest
In 1978 Berlusconi formed his first media group, Fininvest, which in the five years leading up to 1983 earned 113 billion lire (the equivalent of about 260 million euro at 1997 values). In 1980 Berlusconi founded Italy's first private national network Canale 5, followed shortly thereafter by Italia 1 which was bought from the Rusconi family in 1982, and Rete 4 which was bought from Mondadori in 1984. But Berlusconi was strongly aided in his successful effort to create the first and only Italian commercial TV empire by his links to Bettino Craxi, secretary-general of the Italian Socialist Party and also prime minister of Italy at that time. Craxi, with an urgent decree, legalized the national broadcasts made by Berlusconi's televisions. For some years, the three channels owned by Berlusconi existed in this strange limbo, and were not therefore allowed, for instance, to broadcast news and political commentary.
In 1986, Berlusconi also tried to expand his business into France with his channel La Cinq, but the project failed and he had to leave in 1990.
In 1995, Berlusconi sold a portion of his media holdings, first to the German media group Kirch (now bankrupt) and then by public offer. In 1999 Berlusconi expanded again in the media business in a partnership with Kirch called the Epsilon MediaGroup.
Current assets
Berlusconi's main group, called Mediaset, comprises three national television channels, which hold approximately half the national viewing audience, and Publitalia, the leading Italian advertising and publicity agency. The latter has such poor sales that some observers have claimed that it is kept alive by Berlusconi solely for that purpose.
Berlusconi also owns the football club AC Milan, which some think has been an important factor in his political success ("Forza Italia" means "Go Italy!") and before the party was founded it was connected to football supporters of the national team.
Political career
"Entering the field"
In the early 1990s, the two largest Italian political parties, the Christian Democrats (Democrazia Cristiana) and the Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano) lost much of their electoral strength due to a large number of judicial investigations concerning the financial corruption of many of their foremost members (see the Mani Pulite affair). Berlusconi publicly announced on January 26th, 1994 his decision to enter politics ("Entering the field", in his own words) on a platform centered on the defeat of Communism.
The debate about motives
One of the most debated matters about Berlusconi concerns the true reasons that Berlusconi entered into politics in the first place.
Some critics have argued that Berlusconi entered into politics for completely self-interested reasons: saving his own companies from bankruptcy and himself from convictions. According to journalist Marco Travaglio, Berlusconi "never hid [this motive] from anyone.
On the other hand, Berlusconi's supporters hailed him as the "new man", an outsider who was going to bring a new efficiency to the public bureaucracy and reform the state from top to bottom.
While investigating these matters, three journalists noted the following facts:
The 1994 Electoral Victory
Berlusconi founded Forza Italia only two months before the 1994 elections.
Berlusconi launched a massive campaign of electoral advertisements on his three TV networks.
Fall of the Berlusconi I administration
In December 1994, the Northern League left the coalition claiming that the electoral pact had not been respected, forcing Berlusconi to resign from office and shifting the majority's weight to the centre-left side. Berlusconi remained as caretaker prime minister for a little over a month until his replacement by a technocratic government headed by Lamberto Dini. Dini had been a key minister in the Berlusconi cabinet, and Berlusconi said the only way he would support a technocratic government would be if Dini headed it.
Electoral Victory of 2001
In 2001 Berlusconi again ran as leader of the centre-right coalition House of Freedoms (Casa delle Libertà) which included National Alliance, UDC (United Christian Democrats), Northern League and other parties. Berlusconi's success in this election led to him becoming Prime Minister once more, with the coalition receiving 45.4% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies and 42.5% for the Senate.
In a TV show during the electoral campaign, Berlusconi signed the so-called Contratto con gli Italiani (agreement with Italians), that was likely a key step to achieve the victory. In this unofficial agreement, Berlusconi claimed he could improve several aspects of the Italian economy and life, including lowering taxes, increasing employment, building up new public works, increasing retirement rents and strangling crime.
Opposition parties have always asserted that Berlusconi was not able to achieve the goals he claimed in Contratto con gli Italiani. The National Alliance and UDC (Berlusconi's allied parties) also asserted that the Government did not manage to respect the promises in the agreement. According to them, Berlusconi's failure was due to the unfavourable economical condition that Italy was experiencing. In particular, the Italian GDP grew very slowly during Berlusconi's Government, and the public debt rose quickly. On the other hand, Berlusconi himself has always claimed he achieved all the goals of the agreement, and said his Government provided un miracolo continuo (a continuous miracle).
Subsequent elections
Casa delle Libertà did not do as well in the 2003 local elections as it did in the 2001 national elections. As an outcome of these results the other coalition parties, whose electoral results were more satisfactory, asked Berlusconi and Forza Italia for greater influence in the government's political line.
The Berlusconi III Cabinet
In the 2005 Local Elections (April 3 and April 4, 2005), the candidates supported by the Union Coalition (formerly known as Olive Tree) won in 12 out of 14 regions which were renovating local governments and Governor; Berlusconi's coalition held in only two regions (Lombardy and Veneto). Two parties (UDC and Socialist Party) left the Berlusconi government. Berlusconi thus presented to the President of the Republic the dissolution of his government on April 20, 2005, after much hesitation.
There have been some criticisms on Berlusconi's choices especially on the appointment as new ministry of Health, position previously held by Girolamo Sirchia - a renown Professor and doctor-, of Francesco Storace, who, only a few weeks earlier, was the President of Latium Region.
The 2006 Elections
In the 2006 Parliamentary Elections, the results has given Prodi's bloc (Berlusconi's opposition) the majority (49.8% against 49.7% for the ruling centre-right in the Lower House and two senators lead in the Senate 158 vs 156). This situation has assigned to Prodi the possibility to form a new Cabinet, because of the recent modification to electoral rules introduced by Berlusconi's Cabinet. Moreover, despite the victory of Berlusconi's coalition in the Senate (achieving 50.2% of total votes), the Casa delle Libertà hasn't the majority of senators which have been assigned, due to the electoral district voting system, to the Union Coalition lead by Romano Prodi.
Berlusconi at first spoke of electoral fraud and his coalition has asked for a recount, disputing the results and refusing to admit defeat. To support this view Berlusconi claimed that the Unione shouldn't govern against the will of half the Italian people. In 2001 however Berlusconi got a majority of senators with just 42.5% of the vote, and governed five years with it.
Centrist parties like UDC immediately conceded the Unione's victory, while more right wing elements, like Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Lega Nord, still refused to accept its validity, right up until the 2nd of May 2006, when Berlusconi submitted his resignation to president Ciampi .
Policies
As he founded his Forza Italia party and entered politics, Berlusconi expressed support for "freedom, the individual, family, enterprise, Italian tradition, Christian tradition and love for weaker people" . at present three party conventions have been held, all of them resolved to support Berlusconi, and his re-election by acclamation. Every man in the party apparatus is appointed by Berlusconi himself: for all these reasons, its political opponents call Forza Italia "the plastic party".
Some allies of Berlusconi, especially Lega Nord (Northern League) push for a strong control of immigration and getting their support has required some changes in policies from Berlusconi. Berlusconi himself has shown some reluctance to pursue such policies as strongly as his allies might like.
The Berlusconi government has had a strong tendency to support American foreign policies despite the policy divide between the U.S. and many other founding members of European Union (Germany, France, Belgium), a break from the traditional Italian foreign policy. Italy, with Berlusconi in office, became a substantial ally to the United States due to his support of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Berlusconi, in his meetings with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. President George W.
The government confirms the agenda to reduce taxes and simplify the taxation system for both privates and enterprises (Berlusconi himself engaged personally during his electoral campaign).
A key point of the government program is the planned reform of the Italian Constitution (which Berlusconi said to be "inspired by Soviets"), an issue the coalition parties themselves initially had significantly different opinions about, with Lega Nord insisting on the federal reform (devolution of more power to the Regions) as the condition itself for remaining in the coalition; Difficulties in arranging a mediation caused some internal unrest in the Berlusconi government in 2003, but then they were mostly overcome and the law (comprising power devolution to the regions, Federal Senate, "strong premiership" and to be complemented with a new electoral law) was passed by the Senate in April 2004;
Legislative actions
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Berlusconi's government passed many pieces of legislation, among which:
The reform of the labour system.In a controversial move, the Berlusconi government also passed a new media reform legislation. Among other things, such legislation increased the maximum limit on an individual's share of the media market, allowing Berlusconi to retain control of his three national TV channels (one of which was still using a frequency which by law should have gone to another channel).
A less known law made the so called "Articolo 41 bis" punitive jail regime for mafia leaders a permanent provision.
Berlusconi has forced through the Parliament an overall constitutional reform to deepen the current federal form of the State and strengthen the power of the Prime Minister.
In October 2005, Berlusconi forced a reform of electoral law. The opposition argued that this law was designed to save a close friend of Berlusconi, Cesare Previti, from corruption charges; however, after modifications by the parliament, Previti was excluded by the benefits of this law
In the last few days of the term, Berlusconi's parliamentary majority approved many controversial laws, sometimes combining some into unrelated ones.
Controversies
Because of his central role in the last decade of Italian politics, his personal fortune, his involvement in the media structure of Italy, his P2 membership, and also because of his extroverted personality, Silvio Berlusconi has often been at the centre of major controversies.
Arguments for Illegal Jobs
In December 2002, Berlusconi astonished observers when he suggested that laid-off FIAT workers should take illegal non-tax-paying jobs to make ends meet.
The Economist
One of Berlusconi's strongest critics in the media outside Italy is the British weekly The Economist (nicknamed by Berlusconi "The Ecommunist"). The war of words between Berlusconi and The Economist has been infamous and widely reported, with Berlusconi taking the publication to court in Rome and The Economist publishing open letters against him .
In any event, according to The Economist, Berlusconi, while in his position as prime minister of Italy, had effective control of 90% of all national television broadcasting.
Influence on the media
Berlusconi's extensive control of the media has been linked to claims that Italy's media shows limited freedom of expression. The Freedom of the Press 2004 Global Survey, an annual study issued by the American organization Freedom House, downgraded Italy's ranking from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' on the basis of Berlusconi's influence over RAI, a ranking which, in "Western Europe" was shared only with Turkey (2005). Reporters Without Borders states that in 2004, "The conflict of interests involving prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his vast media empire was still not resolved and continued to threaten news diversity". In April 2004, the International Federation of Journalists joined the criticism, objecting to the passage of a law vetoed by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2003, which critics believe is designed to protect Berlusconi's alleged 90% control of national media.
Berlusconi's influence over RAI became evident when in Sofia, Bulgaria he expressed his views on the journalists Enzo Biagi, Michele Santoro , and comedian Daniele Luttazzi. Berlusconi said the they "use television as a criminal mean of communication". On the contrary with RAI I reached on my own initiative a personally satisfactory agreement..."
The TV broadcasting of a satirical program called Raiot was censored in November 2003 after the comedienne, Sabina Guzzanti, made outspoken criticism of the Berlusconi media empire . Mediaset, one of Berlusconi's companies, sued the Italian state broadcasting company RAI because of the Guzzanti show asking for 20 million Euro for "damages" and from November 2003 she was forced to appear only in theatres around Italy.
In response to such claims, Mediaset, Berlusconi's television group, has stated that it uses the same criteria as the public (state-owned) television RAI in assigning a proper visibility to all the most important political parties and movements (the so-called 'Par Condicio'). It is also true that while the distribution of newspapers in Italy is lower than most other European countries (100 copies per 1000 individuals compared to 500 per 1000 in Scandinavian countries ), the majority of national press, which includes the three largest Italian printed dailies, La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, tends to report independently of the Berlusconi government or (in the case of La Repubblica) to be very openly critical of it.
In March 2006, on the Rai Tre, in a television interview with Lucia Annunziata, originally aimed to address Berlusconi's electoral program, the journalist focussed most queries over the possible conflicts of commercial and political interest of Berlusconi and other themes. Berlusconi and Annunziata argued openly because Berlusconi wanted to answer more deeply to a previos question, and as result Berlusconi stormed out of the studio halfway through the show, refusing to answer the persisting questions posed by Annunziata. For the behaviour held in the interview, RAI has been obliged by the Television Authority (which is run by an opposition leader) to take actions against Annunziata as she has violated the par condicio
Conflicts of interests
The conflict-of-interest issues can be better understood in the context of the structure of control of the state media.
The Italian Left coalition has been often criticized for not approving a law to regulate the conflict of interest between media ownership and holding political officies, despite they had ruled over Italy for several years before 2001. In the early 90s, Berlusconi Media group was close to bankruptcy, also because of the competition with the public broadcaster RAI. Berlusconi said to his fellows that the only way out was to make a deal with RAI to end competition (that is to make a cartel), lower costs and quality of programs, and fix audience share to about 45% for both. In 2002, Luciano Violante, a prominent member of the Left, said in a speech in Parliament:
«Onorevole Anedda, la invito a consultare l’onorevole Berlusconi perché lui sa per certo che gli è stata data la garanzia piena, non adesso, nel 1994, quando ci fu il cambio di governo - che non sarebbero state toccate le televisioni. Lo sa lui e lo sa l’onorevole Letta».(Luciano Violante, Chamber of Deputies of Italy, February 28, 2002)Authors of book Inciucio claim that sentence to be an evidence that the Left make a deal with Berlusconi in 1994, promising to not respect a sentence of the Constitutional Court of Italy that required to assign to someone else one of the three TV frequencies used by Berlusconi, in order to enforce pluralism and competition;
Controversy concerning Berlusconi's conflicts of interest are normally centered around the use of his media and marketing power for political gain; When RAI was being run by a 2-man team appointed by the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (both in Berlusconi's coalition), the state broadcaster lost a significant market share to the rival Mediaset group, owned and run by the Berlusconi family, which has led to large personal gain. Berlusconi has many financial interests, and it is inevitable that a lot of legislation can have a direct financial impact on his fortune. Berlusconi responded to critics by saying that he would not take advantage of these himself, but later he did. Berlusconi himself claims to have resolved his conflict of interest: for example, he cites the fact that he is neither longer president of Mediaset, nor 100% owner.
Jokes
Berlusconi is also famous in Italy for knowing and telling a large number of jokes, sometimes (perhaps inadvertently) causing offence to different groups and individuals, and being seen by someone as embarrassing to his office and to Italian people which he represented. "Not really, but you'll get used to being buried!".
In February 2002, at a European Union summit of foreign ministers, Berlusconi, present since the replacement of his previous foreign minister, Renato Ruggiero, had not yet been appointed, made a vulgar gesture (the "corna") behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister, Josep Piqué, indicating he (Piqué) was a cuckold, exactly at the time of the taking of the official pictures.
On July 2, 2003, one day after taking over the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, he was heavily criticised by the German Member of the European Parliament Martin Schulz (from the SPD) because of his domestic policy. Berlusconi replied, "Mister Schulz, I know a movie-producer in Italy that is making a movie about Nazi concentration camps. Even though Berlusconi insisted that he was only joking, his comparisons with the Nazis caused a brief diplomatic rift between Italy and Germany. The incident was considered especially inappropriate, since Schulz is a socialist, a group who themselves were persecuted and sent to concentration camps, while Berlusconi himself is leading a government including the successor of the Italian Fascist Party, and whose deputy once said that Benito Mussolini was a great Italian statesman.
In mid-May 2005, while opening the European Food Safety Authority in Parma (after the location had previously been preferred over one in Finland and Berlusconi had accused Finns of "not knowing what prosciutto is"), Berlusconi claimed that he had to "dust off my English-language playboy arts" with the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, to convince her to locate the EFSA in Parma. Berlusconi later 'retracted' the comment by saying that anyone who had seen a picture of Halonen must have been aware that he had been joking.
In March 2006, Berlusconi defended accusations he made that the "Chinese Communists used to eat children", by responding with claims that "...read the Black Book of Communism and you will discover that in the China of Mao, they did not eat children, but had them boiled to fertilise the fields". His political opponent, Romano Prodi, told the press, "the damage caused to Italy by an insult to 1.3 billion people is by all means a considerable one", and that Berlusconi's comments were "unthinkable".
On April 4, 2006, less than a week before the oncoming Political Elections in Italy, during a speech given at the National Chamber for Trade Silvio Berlusconi stated that he holds "too high esteem of the Italians' intelligence to think that there are so many coglioni around voting against their interest", coglioni being a vulgar term literally meaning 'bollocks' (morons), commonly used as an insult towards people considered stupid.
Legal investigations of Berlusconi
Delaying tactics
Silvio Berlusconi undoubtedly has a rather long record of judicial trials, as several crimes have been alleged to him or his firms (see also the following subsection on Berlusconi's trials), including false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers and judges. Some of Berlusconi's close collaborators, friends and firm managers have been found guilty of related crimes, notably his younger brother, Paolo, who in 2002 agreed to pay 52 million euro as a plea bargain to local authorities for various charges including corruption and undue appropriation. However, no definitive conviction sentence has ever been issued on Silvio Berlusconi himself for any of the trials which have concluded so far; Consequently, the delaying tactics adopted by Berlusconi's attorneys (including repeated motions for change of venue) served to nullify the pending charges.
On July 7, 2006, Judge Fabio Paparella ruled that Berlusconi must stand trial on charges of financial irregularities and corruption relating to his Mediaset empire, alleged to have taken place between 1994 and 1999.
Member of Propaganda Due masonic lodge
Some of the suspects on Berlusconi's person arise from real or perceived blank spots in his past. A list of names was found of adherents of P2, which included members of the secret services and some prominent personalities from the political, industrial, military and press elite, among which Silvio Berlusconi, who was just starting to gain popularity as the founder and owner of "Canale 5" TV network. Berlusconi later (1989) sued for libel three journalists who had written an article hinting at his involvement in financial crimes and in this occasion he declared in court that he had joined the P2 lodge "only a very short time before the scandal broke" and "he had not even paid the entry fee". Such statements, however, conflicted with the findings of the parliamentary commission appointed to investigate the lodge's activity, with material evidence, and even with previous testimony of Berlusconi, all of which showing that he had actually been a member of P2 since 1978 and had indeed paid a 100,000 Italian liras entry fee. Mafia
Berlusconi's career as an entrepreneur is also often questioned by his detractors. These accusations are regarded by Berlusconi and his supporters as empty slander, trying to undermine Berlusconi's reputation of a self-made man. Frequently cited by opponents are also events dating to the 1980s, including supposed "favor exchanges" between Berlusconi and the former prime minister Bettino Craxi, indicted in 1990-91 for various corruption charges; Berlusconi acknowledges a personal friendship only to Craxi, and of course denies any ties to the Mafia. Heated debate on this issue was recently (2004) triggered again when Marcello Dell'Utri, the manager (later managing director) of Berlusconi's publishing company Publitalia 80 and a Forza Italia senator and long time friend of Berlusconi, was sentenced to 9 years by the Palermo court on charge of "external association to the Mafia" , a sentence on which Berlusconi refused to comment.
On some occasions, which raised a strong upheaval in the Italian political opposition, laws passed by the Berlusconi administration have effectively delayed ongoing trials on him, allowing the statute of limitations to expire, or stopped them entirely. This law froze Berlusconi's position in the SME-Ariosto trial in which he was accused of having corrupted judges in previous legal rulings regarding his participation in the public auction of the state-owned food company SME in the 1980s. However, the trial was not frozen for other defendants, and the former lawyer of Berlusconi's main firm (Fininvest) and former Italian defence minister, Cesare Previti, was sentenced to 5 years although the crime was reduced from corruption of judges to simple corruption . Subsequently Berlusconi has declared his intent to re-introduce the law using the correct procedure for constitutional modification. Because of these legislative acts, political opponents accuse Berlusconi of passing ad personam laws, to protect himself from legal charges; Berlusconi and his allies, on the other hand, maintain that such laws are consistent with everyone's right to a rapid and just trial, and with the principle of presumption of innocence (garantismo); furthermore, they claim that Berlusconi is subject to a judiciary persecution, a political witch hunt orchestrated by politicized (left-wing) judges .
For such reasons, Berlusconi and his government have an ongoing quarrel with the Italian judiciary, which reached its peak in 2003 when Berlusconi commented to a foreign journalist that judges are "mentally disturbed" and "anthropologically different from the rest of the human race", remarks that he later claimed he meant to be directed to specific judges only, and of a humorous nature. More seriously, the Berlusconi administration has long been planning a judiciary reform intended to limit the arbitrariness allowed to the judges in their decisions (for example by introducing civil liability on the consequences of their sentences), but which, according to its critics, will instead limit the magistrature's independence, by de facto subjecting the judiciary to the executive's control. This reform has met almost unanimous dissent from the Italian judges and, after three years of debate and struggle, was passed by the Italian parliament in December 2004, but was immediately vetoed by the Italian President, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi , who said some of the passed laws were "clearly unconstitutional".
Berlusconi has also been indicted in Spain for charges of tax fraud and violation of anti-trust laws regarding the private TV network Telecinco, but his status as a member of the European Parliament allowed him to gain immunity from prosecution .
"Jowellgate" in the UK
Berlusconi describes the work of prosecutors pursuing him and his associates as a politically-motivated vendetta and attributes their current attentions to the imminent Italian elections. David Mills, lawyer husband of the British cabinet minister in the Blair government, had acted for Berlusconi in the early 1990s and has been accused by Italian prosecutors of money laundering and of accepting a gift from Berlusconi in return for friendly evidence given as a prosecution witness against Berlusconi. However, Mills has asserted that the money in question did not come from Berlusconi but from another client. No formal indictment has yet been issued but on March 10, 2006 it was reported that prosecuting magistrates in Italy has submitted evidence to a judge, seeking an indictment for bribery against Berlusconi and Mills : all parties vehemently deny wrong-doing and Berlusconi commented that the timing showed that the prosecution is political. Berlusconi also denies having met Mills. Jowell's resignation nor that proves guilt of Mills, Berlusconi or their intermediaries.
Trials
Personality
Berlusconi is admired by some Italians for his tremendous success as a businessman;
It is known that Silvio Berlusconi has a very high opinion of himself, at times comparing himself to Napoleon , Churchill and Jesus Christ . Berlusconi is evidently a media-savvy politician with a good feel for what goes down well in Italy.
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