Italian News Fragments from July 2010

It’s hot here.  Summer was a little late in coming this year, but it’s well and truly here now.  I’m keeping busy, which is good, but I’m finding less time to blog about Italy, which is not so good.  Here’s a little of what’s in the news in Italy at the moment.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s ever tanned, ever controversial leader is still trying to push his wiretap legislation through, despite ever mounting opposition, even in his own backyard.

Gianfranco Fini, who is supposedly a Berlusconi ally, stated that levels of press freedom can never be enough, and more recently, that the internet is the future.  Fini is on the attack, and in his sights is Silvio Berlusconi.  There are some who find it hard to swallow that Fini, who comes from a fascist background, is starting to look like the most palatable alternative to Berlusconi.

Berlusconi’s pet paper, Il Giornale, has been having a go at Fini, and the mud slinging is going to get worse.  One thing is certain, Berlusconi will not go down without a fight, and he does have his supporters too.

On the subject of slippery Silvio.

… Continue Reading

Italian Minister Aldo Brancher Resigns

OK, OK, I know the resignation of a government minister is not the most earthmoving event in the universe, but it’s highly unusual occurrence here in Italy.  What’s even more unusual is that Aldo Brancher was only in office for barely 18 days.

Perhaps Aldo Brancher will become Italy’s 18 day minister?  Well, the now ex-minister, but still an MP, was a very odd appointment, and Brancher made himself few friends by immediately trying to use is newly acquired ministerial position to keep himself out of court.

Brancher is facing serious embezzlement charges and he appears to have received something like €600,000 in backhanders.

Now, Brancher will have to face the music he seemed to be so reluctant to face.  Brancher’s appointment was not, perhaps, one of Silvio Berlusconi’s better moves.

… Continue Reading

The Curious Case of Aldo Brancher

Aldo Brancher is Italy’s latest minister, and an old friend and associate of one Silvio Berlusconi.  Supposedly, Brancher is the minister of ‘Decentralisation and Subsidiarity’, whatever that means.  Anyway, approximately two seconds after being appointed, Minister Brancher has become embroiled in scandal.

In a not so sparkling start to his ministerial career, Brancher wasted no time at all in invoking Italy’s ‘Legitimate Impediment’ laws to extricate himself from a legal wrangle involving a charge of embezzlement in connection with dodgy dealings surrounding the Banca Antonveneta case.

Investigations are taking place into whether the Antonveneta Bank’s share price was artificially manipulated by the release of false news.  The case involves quite serious allegations of doubtful business practices, the intention of which appeared to have been to keep the Antonveneta Bank out of foreign hands.

For reasons which are not yet clear, Aldo Brancher‘s good lady wife allegedly ended up with some three hundred thousand Euros in her bank account, and investigators are curious to know just where, and who, this not inconsiderable sum came from.  Yes, Brancher and wife are in something of a pickle.

Actually, Brancher has already had a couple of run ins with the Italian judiciary, and was only saved from doing time on one occasion by a Berlusconi law which de-criminalised false accounting.  Brancher was also caught up in Italy’s 90s mani-pulite – clean-hands – corruption revelations, and spent three months in prison.  In prison, Brancher kept his mouth firmly shut.

Surprising that someone who has been in a few pickles and is in still in a pickle should be made a minister, is it not?  Well, it should be, but this is Italy, and Italy, and its politics, has its own set of contorted rules.

This time, though, Italy’s written rules, otherwise known as laws, seem to have put paid to Brancher’s attempts to get himself off the hook.

… Continue Reading

Does Italy Need another Dictator?

Before you and my Italian readers throw their hands up in horror at the thought of another dictator taking power in Italy, I don’t mean another Mussolini, more of a Lee Kuan Yew.  ‘A Lee Kuan who?’, you might be asking yourselves.

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew, for those who are unaware, is a former prime minister of Singapore.  Someone who has been labelled as a benevolent dictator.  Even Mussolini, who came to a sticky end at the hands of his own people, was, and still is by some, regarded as a dictator of the benevolent genre.  Some historians would argue that Mussolini did do some good for Italy, as indeed did his German partner in crime, one Adolf Hitler.  Power, alas, appears to have gone to the heads of both of these late leaders, and as a consequence they committed many regrettable actions which left their countries in more of a mess than before they started to throw their dictatorial weight around.

Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, on the other hand, appears to have managed to keep the temptations of total power at bay to the extent that he has relinquished power.  Yew is a shrewd politician and an intellectual with an impressive academic record.  Under his leadership, whether it is considered dictatorial or not, Singapore grew from being a backward, unstable former colonial outpost into a stable First World Asian Tiger, according to Wikipedia.  In other words, Yew took a floundering, corrupt country with potential, and turned it around.

Perhaps the same could happen in Italy, there are, after all, parallels between the two countries.

… Continue Reading

Berlusconi’s Battles

The scandal centred around call-girls, and one call-girl in particular, Patrizia D’Addario, is continuing to dog Italy’s prime minister.

Attempts to scare the Italian press into not covering events and accusations have had some effect, in that one leading journalist, Dino Boffo, the editor of Vatican publication Avvenire, decided to resign after what many suspect was a Berlusconi instigated counter-attack.  Well, the offensive against a journalist who had spoken ill of Italy’s premier was launched via a Berlusconi family newspaper, Il Giornale, so it is not a huge surprise that people think Berlusconi pulled a few strings.

One victory does not mean that the war is won though.  Indeed, Berlusconi needs to win on several fronts.  While the resignation of the editor represents one victory, there are some indications that other aspects that the war of Italy’s number one politician is waging against his opponents  is floundering.

Here are some of the fronts which Berlusconi is trying to defend himself against.

… Continue Reading

Berlusconi Lashes Out

Observers in Italy commented on how Silvio Berlusconi went rather quiet over the August summer break this year.  Berlusconi was not relaxing though, he was, by the sounds of things, a plotting and a scheming.

Silvio Berlusconi

In a clear sign that the holiday ‘ceasefire’ is now over, Mr Berlusconi has launched a series of attacks on those who have dared criticise him.

In the line of Berluconi’s fire are an Italian newspaper, the Vatican, and Italian television.

… Continue Reading