Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/09/2006 4:41:00 AM PDT by MadIvan
AS loudspeakers blared out the anthem of his Forza Italia (“Go Italy”) party, Silvio Berlusconi stood ramrod straight on a feel-good, light blue stage, his characteristic grin stamped on his permatanned face.
Following the words on a giant screen — the syllables lighting up one after the other, karaoke-style — the party faithful chanted “we all have a fire in our heart, which beats strongly for you” and waved white flags stamped with the prime minister’s name.
Then the Italian national anthem began playing, and a busty blonde in a shiny low-cut dress handed Berlusconi, 69, a bouquet. “Silvio, Silvio, Silvio” came the shouts from the stadium.
The razzmatazz at the final party rally in Rome ahead of the general election, which begins today, was typical of the flamboyant but tacky campaign style of the media tycoon who has already won his place in the record books as the first Italian prime minister since the second world war to serve a full five-year term.
Berlusconi, who trailed Romano Prodi, his lacklustre centre-left rival, by as much as 20% at the beginning of the year has, by all accounts, fought such a successful campaign that victory — and a further five years in power — was this weekend still within his grasp.
“Berlusconi is a rarity in Italian politics, someone who gives his all and fights a match until the very last second,” said Sergio Romano, a former ambassador and an influential commentator.
But unofficial polling this weekend suggested his centre-right House of Liberties coalition was still a few percentage points behind Prodi, although up to 15% of voters were still thought to be undecided. For all the glitzy stage management and Berlusconi’s mask of irrepressible exuberance, many in the 6,000-seat hall in Rome realised they could be witnessing the end of an era.
That same characteristic exuberance was on display when the prime minister came across a group of schoolchildren as he entered Palazzo Chigi, his opulent official residence.
Inviting them in for a tour, he confided he felt stressed because he rose at 6.30am and his staff were still bringing him work at 1am, told them he wore high heels to make himself look taller and admitted that he had undergone a facelift to make him look like a 50-year-old.
Then he dropped a characteristic clanger. “In any case, all women over 23 in showbusiness do it,” he said in a reference to breast enlargement, using his hands to mime lifting his breasts before the surprised children.
Such blunders are typical of the former vacuum cleaner salesman and cruise ship crooner. During the campaign, he compared himself variously to Jesus Christ, Napoleon and Churchill and was reported to have promised to practise sexual abstinence until election day — although later insisted he had been misquoted.
He also angered the Dutch by comparing their policies on euthanasia to those in Nazi Germany and upset Beijing by claiming communists in Mao’s China boiled babies to use as fertiliser; the Italian Communist party is part of Prodi’s heterogenous coalition and thus fair game for his barbs.
Then came his description of those planning to vote for Prodi’s coalition as coglioni, literally “testicles”, but more colloquially rendered into English as “dickheads”. Prodi’s supporters took to the streets with judiciously positioned balloons.
Berlusconi, who built up a business empire spanning television, advertising, publishing and the AC Milan football team, entered politics in 1994 promising to run “Italy Inc” with the efficiency of a company chairman. His outbursts — although apparently spontaneous — also seem part of a calculated strategy of portraying himself as a man of the people.
“The dominant theme of this campaign has been Berlusconi himself,” said John Harper, professor of European studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, said. “The issue is whether he is fit to govern or should be sacked, whether he is the miracle man or a threat to democracy.” Berlusconi’s record in office is not an easy one to defend, however. He has failed to deliver fully many of his 2001 campaign promises for job creation, sweeping tax cuts, liberalisation of the economy and ambitious infrastructure projects.
The Italian economy did not grow at all last year, while the budget deficit has jumped to more than 4% of GDP. Even the stability of Berlusconi’s administration is largely illusory: he has been obliged to replace 13 ministers who have resigned in the five years.
Berlusconi has nevertheless striven to box Prodi, former Italian prime minister and European commission president, into a corner. He exploited divisions in the left on plans to reintroduce inheritance tax, and wrong-footed his rival by promising to abolish the council tax on first homes.
During the past few days, however, Berlusconi appeared to be running scared. He called for United Nations observers to ensure his enemies did not cheat at the ballot box and proclaimed himself the victim of a plot by newspapers, banks and investigating magistrates leading corruption probes into his business past.
Then, with three days before the polls opened, he produced letters and telexes that he claimed disproved the accusation that he bribed the lawyer David Mills, estranged husband of the culture secretary Tessa Jowell, to give false testimony in two trials against him.
Late one night, Berlusconi revealed last week, he found solace calling erotic chatlines. His unorthodox survey found that six of the eight women on duty supported him, while the other two did not care about politics.
It would be unthinkable for Prodi to indulge in such electioneering, but he, too, has been letting his hair down a little. On Tuesday afternoon at his campaign headquarters near the Trevi fountain, he turned to his spokesman Silvio Sircana and insisted he take him to an appointment on his motorbike.
Prodi’s staff was stunned; this was not the bumbling, bicycle-loving economics professor they were used to. A grey helmet encasing his chubby features, Prodi set out on the back of Sircana’s powerful Guzzi Nevada 750, his hands demurely resting on the spokesman’s shoulders — prompting unkind comparisons to Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.
The motorbike made an illegal left turn onto a busy avenue before roaring off in the spring sunshine. The event seemed so out of character that it prompted lengthy articles in the Italian newspapers, with one recalling a remark his wife Flavia had once made: “You know, Romano likes to do dangerous things.”
It was probably the riskiest manoeuvre Prodi has conducted in the campaign. Fortified by primaries in which 4m Italians turned out to back him as leader of the left, he has managed to keep sniping in his coalition to a minimum and mostly avoided rising to Berlusconi’s bait.
“Prodi has always been in the lead, and he’s tried to give a calm, reassuring image to contrast with the more neurotic Berlusconi,” said Stefano Folli, a leading commentator.
“But Prodi has paid a price for that. In a way he has refused to take part in the campaign, and Berlusconi forced him onto the defensive on taxes. Prodi was ahead, but he had his back to the wall.”
Prodi has occasionally lost his reserve and betrayed the steely, prickly character that lies beneath the parish priest image: he compared Berlusconi’s reliance on statistics to a drunkard leaning on a lamppost “not for illumination, but to keep him standing up”, called a radio listener an idiot, and a Berlusconi ally a “political delinquent”.
But although Prodi’s personality fails to fire the crowds, the widespread disillusionment with Berlusconi’s government is expected to carry the left through. “Berlusconi is a great campaigner and a gifted demagogue but too many people are disappointed with him. He has failed to deliver,” said Harper.
“Berlusconi has changed in the past few days. His council tax move showed he thought he could still win,” Folli said. “But for me, his denunciations of a plot against him are dictated by desperation; it seems to me he’s realised the game is up.”
The last opinion poll published before a blackout imposed on March 24 gave Prodi’s coalition 51.7% of the vote in the lower house of parliament, against 46.6% for Berlusconi’s. The left led 51.4% to 47.1% in the Senate.
Although it is illegal to publish further polls, surveys commissioned by parties are believed to show Berlusconi has since closed the gap, but not by quite enough.
Berlusconi nevertheless claimed victory at his last campaign rally, in Naples, likening his rivals to Stalin, Lenin, Mao and Pol Pot, and urged his audience to make “a choice of destiny”. Clearly unrepentant, he then lowered the tone somewhat, ending his speech with the words: “We will win because we are not coglioni!” As he spoke the words, blue and white balloons lifted a giant poster bearing his smiling features into the sky above the Royal Palace and out into the Bay of Naples.
In Rome, Prodi’s final rally had a circus atmosphere with clowns and fire-eaters performing for the crowd. Portraying himself as a figure of unity, he pledged that his government would be “that of all Italians, even of those who choose not to vote for us”.
If elected, Prodi intends to crack down on tax evasion and recognise civil unions between same-sex couples. He has pledged to speed up Italy’s creaking judicial system.
Berlusconi will be deliberately targeted, too, with new rules on conflicts of interest for politicians in business.
At the Rome rally, his husky voice close to breaking with the strain of a two-hour speech, Berlusconi made one more pledge to his audience: “Kohl, Thatcher, Reagan, Aznar — none of the great leaders managed to change their country in five years, they all needed 10 years! That’s what I need to take the country from the Middle Ages to modernity,” he shouted. His last words were virtually drowned out by a standing ovation of applause, chants of “Viva Silvio!” and flag- waving.
Citizen Berlusconi acknowledged it all with a long Roman-style salute, palm outstretched.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Italia-Nuovo Espania..
He also angered the Dutch by comparing their policies on euthanasia to those in Nazi Germany
Well, at the least, he has that right.
He has been a great ally. I hope he wins a close, disputed election just so we can see the leftists rant and rave.
I first heard about Burlusconi when I was studying communications at college.
He was the Italian version of Rupert Murdoch, owning newly legalized commercial TV stations that carried wild shows like "Playboy at Night" and game shows where women stripped.
His politics were described as "socialist" back then and I guess by my standards they are.
But make no doubt, he's the good guy today and the lefties hope that the boring Prodi can be their champion to get Italy into the "French Camp" in dealing with the Islamofascists and terrorists.
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