Berlusconi blunders
As Italy stands poised to assume the EU presidency, the country's prime minister faces corruption charges, reports
Samia Nkrumah from Rome
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Red, white and green baloons, coloured as the Italian flag, and a placard reading "We vote against Saint Silvio who freed Italy from justice, equality and freedom" in Rome
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Having won immunity from prosecution while in office, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seems to have averted the possibility of facing trial during the next three years. The prime minister can now begin Italy's six- month rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) next month without the threat of a guilty verdict hanging over his head.
The lower house of parliament passed a bill last week that gives immunity to the five leading public officials in the country including the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. The other four affected include the president of the country, speakers of both houses of parliament and the head of the constitutional court. Berlusconi is the only one among the five who was standing trial in a corruption case. The prime minister is accused of bribing judges to sway the outcome of a takeover bid of the state-owned food group, SME, in the 1980s, to prevent it going to his business rival, Carlo De Benedetti, almost a decade before Berlusconi got into politics.
In the three years while the trial was ongoing, Berlusconi appeared only twice -- the second time to deliver a diatribe describing the whole case against him as a fantasy.
At the heart of critics' anger, however, is the fact that Berlusconi has managed to evade prosecution by making parliament pass laws in his favour thus using his political power to serve his own interests. Opponents argue that this is not the first time that supporters of the prime minister have managed to help him get out of his legal troubles. Since Berlusconi was elected three years ago, a series of laws were passed all intended to rescue him of troublesome trials.
First a law decriminalising false accounting was passed. Berlusconi was under indictment for such a crime. Another law limiting prosecutors ability to obtain evidence from another country was passed. Again the prime minister was embroiled in a case where evidence was about to be obtained from Switzerland. A third law was passed that enabled Berlusconi to keep his business while serving his term thus resolving his conflict of interest problem. In effect, that law allowed Berlusconi to maintain control of 90 per cent of television broadcasting.
Then the Cirami law, named after the senator who introduced the bill, was passed a year ago, thereby making it possible for an accused to change the venue of a trial if the judges are deemed to be biased. After failing to move the venue of the trial from Milan to Brescia, the Schifani law, or the latest immunity law, was quickly processed and passed at a time when Berlusconi's case in Milan was progressing and before judges could give a verdict in the case early next month.
By the time Berlusconi has completed his term in office in 2006, the statute of limitations will have expired, meaning that the postponed trial will never take place.
Giulietto Chiesa, political commentator and an independent opposition figure told Al- Ahram Weekly, "This is an extremely dangerous situation and a tragedy for the country's constitution." Chiesa believes "the prime minister is changing the democratic rules in Italy." He points out that Berlusconi controls the majority of the media in the country and will never submit to legal proceedings against him. "What we are witnessing is the beginning of an authoritarian regime. Berlusconi's next move will be to attempt to change the constitution through the introduction of more laws in order to give the prime minister new and added powers. This would amount to a political coup d'état," insists Chiesa.
Supporters of the new immunity law say it existed before 1992 when it was revoked after the unravelling of a case regarding a spate of bribery scandals involving businessmen and politicians at the highest level. Proponents of the law consequently argue that sooner or later parliamentary immunity would have been revived. They, moreover, add that the immunity law was passed in order to help the prime minister's lawyers prepare a better defence, particularly given Berlusconi's own claim that the left-leaning Milanese prosecutors just want to get him out of office against voters will. Giuliano Ferrara, editor-in-chief of Il Foglio, a pro- government daily owned by Berlusconi's wife, defended the new law in an editorial. He argued that for the first time since the corruption scandals of the 1990s, the law, which safeguards the popular will when it elects a leader, has prevailed over the politicised judiciary.
The first reaction of the official opposition came in the form of a boycott of the vote by centre-left members of parliament. In Rome, thousands of spontaneous protesters converged outside parliament during and after the vote, including the girotondi, or ring around a'roses, crowd partly organised by popular filmmaker, Nanni Moretti, who first began this practice over a year ago in opposition to the mounting legal reforms. As usual these protests drew moderates and the middle class as well as anti-globalisation activists. In Florence and Milan there were similar protests.
There are signs that the prime minister's legal problems are denting the popularity of the government. Recent local and municipal elections showed support for Berlusconi's party Forza Italia diminishing slightly. The government also unleashed popular resentment by lending political support to the US and Britain in their war on Iraq against public opinion.
