Berlusconi next mayor of New York?

Monday, 8 July 2013. Italian online magazine Panorama.it mistakes the New Yorker's weekly satirical blog "The Borowitz Report" for a trustworthy source, as it divulges Silvio Berlusconi's intentions to run for NYC office.

As Andy Borowitz wrote on his blog “former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today that he was considering running for office in New York City” the Berlusconi owned Panorama could not resist and reported the fake news as reliable, apparently.

That might have been the reason why Silvio Berlusconi had been practicing English, in the past.

The idea came from the news that Silvio Berlusconi could be banned from public office by a recent sentence coming from the Rubygate trial, a proceeding where the former prime minister was found guilty of abusing of child prostitution and his powers as prime minister (in both instances Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug – also known as Ruby the Heartstealer - was primarily involved, but many other women had been involved in the so-called bunga-bunga parties at Silvio's villa in Arcore).

Appeal is still pending, but the former PM position seems to a bit shaky there, Berlusconi's staunch defender journalist Giuliano Ferrara and some of Berlusconi's women decided he needed some help there....

Furthermore the billionaire is now concerned about another trial, this time related to tax fraud charges, which appeal will reach a court in the end of July (apparently it was called so early in order due to a plot to get rid of Berlusconi's political persona once for all, see our blog post).

If sentenced, Mr Berlusconi could really say goodbye to any public office in Italy, this time. “In Italy, you make one little mistake, they throw you in jail seven years,” declared the media tycoon, according to the US magazine. “New Yorkers are much more forgiving.”. In fact sex scandal ridden New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and former Congressman Anthony Wiener are mounting political comebacks in New York.

 The Italian magazine Panorama reports “major”, instead of “mayor”, but we figured out what they meant actually. A careful reader (are Panorama's contributors THAT careful?) could have realised the tone of the post was satirical by the fact that Mr. Berlusconi was reportedly “unconcerned by rumours of a possible bid for office in New York by [...] Dominique Strauss-Kahn”, another women-lover European politician involved in a sex-related offence, though a bit different.

Note: Incidentally the Panorama magazine is part of the Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Group, the biggest publishing company in Italy, which Silvio Berlusconi acquired from Carlo De Benedetti's CIR in the end of the 80s. Berlusconi has been condemned to pay 190m euro (£164m or $250m) to his enemy De Benedetti, due to irregularities and bribes Berlusconi could have paid in order to buy out the company. The trial hasn't been closed for good yet. Berlusconi's legal problems do not appear to have an end.