?Bunga Bunga? Berlusconi Redefines Winning: Alexander Stille - Bloomberg
'Bunga Bunga’ Berlusconi Redefines Winning
By Alexander Stille - Apr 6, 2011
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Nicole Itano reports from Italy on the impact of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex trial on investment in the country. (Source: Bloomberg)
Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to go on trial in Milan for partying with an underage exotic dancer whose stage name is Ruby Heart Stealer and for interfering with a police investigation after she was arrested for theft. In separate trials, he is accused of tax fraud and bribing a lawyer to lie to authorities.
His government coalition seemed on the brink of collapse earlier this year when revelations surfaced about Ruby -- a Moroccan, now 18, named Karima El Mahroug -- and wild “bunga bunga” parties allegedly held in his residence north of Milan. Women marched in demonstrations throughout Italy, calling for his resignation.
So far, Berlusconi has survived these embarrassments, stemmed defections from his ruling coalition and firmed up his majority in the Italian parliament. His coalition’s approval rating, though down 10 percentage points in the past several months, stands at about 40 percent. That’s miraculous considering all his legal woes and the country’s anemic economic growth of 1.5 percent.
How has Berlusconi, 74, withstood scandals that would have undone any other elected leader of a functioning democracy?
“Italians identify with me, I’m one of them. I was poor and am self-made, I love soccer, life and, like any self- respecting Italian, beautiful women,” Berlusconi said.
As the chief owner of a media and financial empire that thrived in a corrupt political culture, Berlusconi has been dogged by investigations since he first became prime minister in 1994.
He’s in Charge
As a billionaire executive, Berlusconi prefers running the show rather than accommodating the checks and balances of democratic politics. He pushed through changes to Italy’s electoral laws, allowing him to personally choose almost all the people who serve in parliament within his own party.
Following his re-election to a third term as prime minister in 2008 and victories in several criminal cases, Berlusconi’s behavior became increasingly reckless. He began acting more like an absolute monarch than an elected leader.
After he was caught attending the 18th birthday party of a young Neapolitan woman, Berlusconi’s wife filed for divorce, stating in a public letter that her husband “was not well,” and that she “refused to stay with someone who frequented minors.” More peccadilloes involving prostitutes followed. In one case, the women were allegedly paid for by an individual hoping to win government contracts.
Damage Control
The scandals themselves didn’t cause Berlusconi too much damage; his response to them did. Tired of reading newspaper accounts detailing wiretapped conversations between himself and prostitutes and corrupt politicians, Berlusconi moved to restrict the use of wiretaps to cases involving terrorism or the Mafia and for brief periods of time.
A law-and-order faction of his conservative coalition rebelled, risking his government’s downfall. Then the Ruby episode hit, making the proposed wiretap law seem even more like an attempt to cover up the prime minister’s affairs.
Berlusconi’s supporters in parliament, who hold a majority of seats, are pushing a law to shorten the statute of limitations. If passed, the new law would invalidate one of cases in which he is the defendant.
Since many Italians believe that most politicians are crooks, they don’t regard Berlusconi’s indictments in multiple corruption cases as an indication that he is especially unscrupulous. Instead, many believe he’s been singled out for harsh treatment by the nation’s judiciary.
Disregard for Laws
Italy is a country of small businesses, 83 percent of which are family-owned, most with fewer than five employees. Skirting the nation’s high taxes and rigid labor laws is common practice. Taxpayers who aren’t forced to pay withholding tax hide, on average, 38 percent of their income, according to a recent government study.
Many Italians see Berlusconi’s legal problems as a magnified form of their own way of operating. He has repeatedly passed tax amnesties, making tax evasion an entirely rational move. Like Berlusconi, they are suspicious of and hostile to Italy’s judiciary and the country’s political left, which has made an issue of the need for tax compliance.
While Berlusconi’s behavior has alienated some Catholic voters and has drawn criticism from some priests, the Church hierarchy has avoided breaking with him. During his three terms as prime minister, his coalition has given the Church much of what it has wanted: aid for Catholic schools, tax breaks for church-run businesses, a highly restrictive law on artificial insemination, the defense of crucifixes in public places and a strong presence of priests and nuns in public schools.
Controlling the Media
Berlusconi has sweeping influence in Italian television; his companies’ channels and those operated by the government reach almost 90 percent of the nation’s TV viewers. About 70 percent of Italians get almost all their news from television. The evidence against Berlusconi in his multiple trials has rarely been broadcast on Italian TV and Berlusconi is trying hard to clamp down on the handful of talk shows that have covered it.
One proposal -- couched as a way to promote diversity -- would make it illegal to cover the same topic more than once in an eight-day period. Rai, Italy’s state broadcasting system, has given a prime-time program to the editor of a Berlusconi family- owned newspaper and former government spokesman, who has used it to rail against the “Taliban” and “puritans” persecuting Berlusconi for his libertine lifestyle.
Promises, Promises
As one of the richest people in the country, and by far the most powerful, Berlusconi is in a strong bargaining position with the defectors in his center-right coalition. Promises of future government positions and perhaps contracts with one of his many companies has probably accounted for parliamentarians returning to the fold.
Finally, Italian voters are skeptical of Berlusconi’s political opponents. When the center-left governed the country between 2006 and 2008, they were divided in a nine-party coalition, whose members squabbled among themselves rather than govern effectively. While the moderates and leftists make up 60 percent of the electorate, they have yet to unify around a credible, coherent program.
Until they do, Berlusconi will stand as the dominant figure in Italian public life.
(Alexander Stille is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and author of “The Sack of Rome: Media + Money + Celebrity = Power = Silvio Berlusconi.” The opinions expressed are his own.)
Forget Bond: Berlusconi never dies!
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