Berlusconi and the trial over the obscure bribing

Tue, 19 March, 2013. Neapolitan tribunal rejects “immediate judgement” in latest Silvio Berlusconi's proceedings for bribing members of the Senate of Italy, following the “Operazione Libertà” inquiry.

Sergio De Gregorio, unintentional target of a bribery?

“Operazione Libertà” (“Operation Freedom”) was the name that - back in 2006 and 2007 - Silvio Berlusconi gave to a series of actions taken in order to “acquire” politicians from the Romano Prodi led left-wing coalition and bring to an end the Prodi II Cabinet, basically a bunch of Communists (as Silvio would put it, and actually a few parties of the coalition did have the “Communist” word in their name).

During the “Operation Freedom”, some of the Senators from IdV (former magistrate Antonio “Tonino” Di Pietro's movement, “Italia dei Valori”, in English: “Italy of values”) – Antonio Razzi, Domenico Scilipoti and Sergio De Gregorio – switched side and became staunch defenders of Silvio Berlusconi (some of them up to his resignation in 2011).

Silvio Berlusconi and his resignation

Saturday, November 8, 2011. Many people are waiting for Silvio Berlusconi's resignation, in the streets, on the Internet, whilst still fearing a last minute trick from the Cavaliere.

Berlusconi's farewell

Silvio Berlusconi's end has been anticipated since, at least, the 14^th of December 2010. Many were convinced that on that day the Italian prime minister would lose the majority in the Parliament, after Gianfranco Fini's Future and Freedom split, and bring to an end his government.

But the Cavaliere's end did not come. He managed to find unexpected allies, and his government carried on, even though it was barely able to pass the deep reforms Italy needed – and needs – in order to get rid of his enormous debt of almost €1.9trn and start to grow again, after a decade of stagnation.

Scilipoti's protest

The game lasted almost 12 months, but now seems to be definitely over, as last Tuesday some “traitors” (as the Italian Silvio called them) left the sinking boat, paving the way for the “coup d'etat” (as Scilipoti, Berlusconi's ally, put it) of Gianfranco Fini, supported by the banks lobby.

Today the Italian Parliament has approved the financial stability law, and Silvio Berlusconi – a few days ago – stated that will be the final act of the current government, and he will resign.

So today it could be – and should be – the day, as the Italian population is preparing to celebrate. On Twitter and Facebook the tension increases.

Will he go for good, this time?

-->

Silvio Berlusconi and the really, really bad luck

Tuesday, October 11, 2011. Silvio Berlusconi's govern loses parlametary vote on 2010 budget, but it's all due to bad luck, isn't it?
Silvio Berlusconi is really, really angry, this time. And it seems that he has right to be so, because he hates to lose (by the way: he can get angry when he wins too, but this is another story).

Silvio's Anger

The Italian Parliament refused to approve the 2010 budget review, with a vote that tied at 290-290, whilst 291 votes were needed to get the “rendiconto” (a bureaucratic document reviewing last year's public finances) get through.

Only one single vote! That's incredible, should have thought Mr Berlusconi. And it's definitely an “unprecedented case” in Italy, as Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house, put it.

And it was all due just to bad luck.

It would have been sufficient to get the vote of Berlusconi's friend and ally Umberto Bossi, but – quite unluckily – he went out for a cigar, and on his way back the Northern League boss stumbled into a group of journalists, which slowed him down, so that he was not able to cast his vote. Too bad!

It would have been enough to get Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti's endorsement, but he was preparing some documents in his cabinet, and arrived just late...

A few of the Responsibles? (Scilipoti in the middle)

Neither Claudio Scajola, with whom the Prime minister had a “friendly chat” the day before, could not make it.

And the members of “responsible initiative”, a group of twenty MPs that decided to support Berlusconi's cabinet when Fini left the parliament's majority? The majority of them were there, six of them had gone missing (amongst them their leader, Scilipoti).

What a bad luck*!

-->

*Libero-news.it, a "Berlusconi-friendly" news site is suggesting that Scajola "stabbed Silvio in the back", but no evidence was brought to light.

Libero-news.it's cartoon (Scajola stabbing Silvio in the back)

Silvio Berlusconi DID NOT sing any song

Thursday, 24 March 2011. Silvio Berlusconi DID NOT sing any song. Signed: The Italian Government's Cabinet.

The Cabinet of the Italian Government issues a clarifying note – through it's official site www.governo.it – that should stop for good the terrible and slanderous rumours the communist press has been spreading around in the previous days.

The Italian Government official note

The rumours follow the dinner Mr Berlusconi organised at Palazzo Grazioli, his residence in Rome, with a group of members of the Italian Parliament, called the Responsible Ones (Movement of National Responsibility). The group - founded by Domenico Scilipoti - is called "The Responsible Ones" because the members switched sides (they were affiliated to Antonio Di Pietro's Italy of Values), in order to keep Silvio Berlusconi's coalition alive.