Berlusconi Backfires

Following up on John Nichols' post about Silvio Berlusconi's likely election defeat, I'm posting a dispatch from our ace Washington intern Cora Currier, who lived in Italy and, unlike the rest of us, speaks fluent Italian.

Berlusconi's parading as Bush's buddy at the start of the Iraq war was the least of his problems. Italy's slick, perpetually tanned billionaire prime minister will likely lose the election because, after five years of scandals and corruption, Italians have had enough of his antics. Before the election he ceded to overwhelming popular opinion by promising to pull Italian troops from Iraq by the year's end, but it was too late to save face.

While Italy's economy floundered, Berlusconi, ranked the country's richest man by Forbes Magazine, was busy re-writing laws to avoid charges of tax-fraud, corruption and bribery. During the run-up to the election, supporters of opposition candidate Romano Prodi protested the inequality of TV time between the candidates. Little surprise: through various businesses, Berlusconi controls an alleged 90 percent of the national media. Last week Berlusconi announced to supporters at a rally in Naples: "we will win because we are not coglioni," using a vulgar term literally meaning "testicles" to paint the opposition as "assholes." The next day, T-shirts were seen on the streets of Rome reading Io Sono un Coglione: "I am an asshole." Looks there are quite a few of them in Italy these days…

Comments (14)

1. Interesting....

   If Berlusconi controls 90% of the Italian media....and loses.

   Then, American liberals should have NO excuses for not winning in 2006 and 2008 due to the "right-wing corporate media", right?

   Posted by Mask at 04/10/2006 @ 1:31pm

2. We should be careful with our early pronouncements of a Berlusconi defeat. If Berlsuconi is a real confidante of Bush, then he knows that it isn't who votes that matters but who does the counting of the votes that is most important.

   Posted by oraibi1952 at 04/10/2006 @ 1:43pm

3. P.S. The BBC is reporting that the Italian election is still close and that Italian polls have oftern been proven wrong in previous elections.

   Posted by oraibi1952 at 04/10/2006 @ 1:45pm

4. Posted by MASK 04/10/2006 @ 1:31pm: If Berlusconi controls 90% of the Italian media....and loses. Then, American liberals should have NO excuses for not winning in 2006 and 2008 due to the "right-wing corporate media", right?

   Mask, your logic is as ill-formed as your use of quotation marks.

   Posted by orwell2005 at 04/10/2006 @ 1:55pm

5. Posted by ORWELL2005 04/10/2006 @ 1:55pm | ignore this person

   Please elaborate then. What's the flaw in my logic?

   If the fear of the Left is "the right-wing corporate media" controlling the agenda and effecting our elections....and a politician in Italy who owns 90%!!!!! of their media, still loses....

   then THAT fear seems illogical, no?

   Posted by Mask at 04/10/2006 @ 2:45pm

6. What kind of t-shirts do we need to wear in this country? I'm not a terrorist!?!

   Posted by John Earl at 04/10/2006 @ 3:03pm

7. Well, you seem to be ignoring the HUGE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OUR POLITICAL SYSTEMS - such as, they have, what, 40 more political parties in every election than we do? The two are barely comparable as political processes are concerned, and secondly, do you think that Italians live in the complete media vaccuum that Americans do? The citizens of other countries are almost always better informed about what the American government is up to than American citizens are; I'm thinking that even Italian-mobster owned media is probably less partisan than our own.

   Posted by LClaire at 04/10/2006 @ 3:05pm

8. Posted by MASK 04/10/2006 @ 2:45pm: Please elaborate then.

   First, your assumptions are simplistic. You assume that the politics of Italy and the US are similar, when in fact, Italy has a multi-party parlimentary system whereas we have a two-party system that heavily favors incumbants. You further assume that, like the US, the Italians are only reachable by domestic media, when in fact, they are surrounded by and influenced by other European media. You assert that "the fear of the Left" is "the right-wing corporate media", when in fact, all the lefties I know are far more frightened by our authoritarian president's grab for dictatorial powers and by the Cowboy-in-Chief's lunatic plan to massively bomb Iran.

   Ignoring your false assumptions, the general logic of asserting that because something happened in a certain way in Italy, it will happen in the same way here, is silly. You can not construct any meaningful patterns of causal relationships from a single data point.

   I don't even see how such reasoning is helpful to your positon. Under your logic, our Iraqi adventure can not succeed because it did not succeed when the British tried it. Under your logic, our Afghan adventure can not succeed because it did not succeed when the Soviets tried it.

   Posted by orwell2005 at 04/10/2006 @ 4:18pm

9. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4894584.stm

   BBC reporting that Berlusconi may, in fact, be holding onto a slim lead.

   Posted by brunowe at 04/10/2006 @ 7:35pm

10. Prodi claims victory per the BBC.

    Prodi Victory [news.bbc.co.uk]

    Posted by oraibi1952 at 04/11/2006 @ 09:07am

11. Under your logic, our Iraqi adventure can not succeed because it did not succeed when the British tried it. Under your logic, our Afghan adventure can not succeed because it did not succeed when the Soviets tried it.

    Posted by ORWELL2005 04/10/2006 @ 4:18pm | ignore this person

    BOTH of those views....were views of the LEFT, before going into both Afghanistan and Iraq.

    Are YOU saying they were "false logic"?

    Apparently, I'll have to retract my original post anyway....it looks like Berlusconi IS going to hold onto the Senate. So, maybe control of the media DOES matter, eh?

    Posted by Mask at 04/11/2006 @ 09:11am

12. Posted by MASK 04/11/2006 @ 09:11am:BOTH of those views....were views of the LEFT, before going into both Afghanistan and Iraq.

    That is not correct. The primary reason that those on the left (and the right and the center) who (correctly) opposed our Imperial Adventure in Iraq was that IRAQ WAS NOT A THREAT TO US. Other reasons were that IT WAS ILLEGAL under US and International law; it would be TOO EXPENSIVE in blood and money; IT IS IMMORAL to bomb civilians in an unprovoked attack; and it will increase anti-Americanism around the world. I can't recall many people who used the British example as the primary reason not to invade. Can you?

    Are YOU saying they were "false logic"?

    I am saying that extrapolation from a single data point is a very flawed technique.

    Apparently, I'll have to retract my original post anyway....it looks like Berlusconi IS going to hold onto the Senate. So, maybe control of the media DOES matter, eh?

    Try to wrap your brain around the following concept: Whether or not control of the media matters is NOT determined by whether or not Berlusconi wins. Perhaps control of the media has an impact on elections, but not necessarily a decisive impact.

    Consider a situation where, without control of the media, Berlusconi's coalistion would garner only 10% of the vote. But, with control of the media, it garners 40% of the vote. In both cases, Berlusconi's coalition loses. Do you foolishly conclude that control of the media is irrelevant?

    Posted by orwell2005 at 04/11/2006 @ 3:45pm

13. I am Italian, and live in italy. I have never seen such scoundrels ruling my country for all my 53 years. It' s not only their personal corruption, and trials, and open plots for complete economic and mediatic power. Berlusconi, as an Italian opinionist says, "has poisoned the wells of politics". He has poisoned laws, policies for education, immigration, health, job market... his most alarmed warning in the last campaign was: "these wicked communists want the worker's child to be equal to the manager's! You know: Chinese communists used to boil children!" That's it. he has overthrown many important articles of our Constitution, has subdued law and justice to his interests, despises and fears judges, encourages to avoid taxes, everything is estimated by money, women are all housewives or pinups, culture and education fund are cut. His government has agreements with Geddafi for persecuting the poor peolple migrating from Africa to italy. Our navy sends them back to Lybian coasts, and nobody knows their destiny. Political refugees are refused. Migrants are badly treated and easily expelled. Italy has re-invented slavery. The philosophy is a fierce social darwinism. And economy is vertically decading! personal Berlusconi's laws are actually working for all his billionaire class, and are against all workers and socially weak groups. He has embarked the worst extremist fascist groups in his coalition. Now he is discussing the victory of the Left, that' s really very slim, and proposes a "grosse Koalition" like in Germany: again, he's poisoning Italian air. Never known such a corruptor of souls. We have to be very awake and alerted in the next days. He can try anything... laura schiavoncini, Florence, Italy

    Posted by laurax3 at 04/12/2006 @ 06:49am

14. Although all of the comments made by Laurax3 are beyond doubt, the over-riding issue in the election was the economy. The failure here is something that all wage earners have felt. Inflation has been enormous under Berlusconi, and wages have not kept up. During the election campaign he continued to mouth lies and generalities and refused to discuss the realities. Unfortunately, I suspect that had the economy been doing well he would have been re-elected because corruption even at the magnitude promulgated by Berlusconi is a secondary issue for some proportion of the electorate. Even Fini, his right wing ex-fascist associate was heard to say that Berlusconi should not exaggerate by saying everything was fine and dandy in Italy because Fini like most knew this was not so; and incidentally Fini's party has gotten a lot of support from even the poor Catholic constituency in the south who must be suffering most along with other low income Italians. Berlusconi's operational modus vivendi can be succinctly expressed as "every man has his price". He applies this at all levels. The most recent revelation, unfortunately coming just after the election, was the agreement he made with the disgraced and indicted ex-president of the national bank, one Fazio, to announce that the economy was in good shape, in exchange for which Berlusconi would allow to pass a major bank transaction favouring one of Fazio's close relatives. This is not rumour, it has emerged as sworn testimony in front of magistrates. It is fascinating that he has gotten away with so much corruption but that it was finally the economy that brought him down.

    Posted by john danziger at 04/14/2006 @ 10:48am