Silvio Berlusconi and the Sicilian clans

Monday, December 10, 2012. As the secretary of the People of Liberty party (PdL) Angelino Alfano states that Silvio Berlusconi's good friend Marcello Dell'Utri is a “miserable man”, the centre-right party's crisis becomes quite evident.

RAI TV programme Porta a Porta (Door to Door) or Italian journalist Bruno Vespa's  lounge – as the late night talk show is frequently called – is a hot spot for discussions, quarrels, rows, and – sometimes – fights, especially when general elections are in sight.

... if Alfano strikes...

And this is the case, because general election will take place in Italy as soon as February 2012. But normally all the squabbling and skirmishing happens between members of different parties and movements. This time the discussion is within Berlusconi's PdL (People of Liberty), to be more precise, within the Sicilian tribes of the party.

Silvio Berlusconi and the broader moderate alliance

Wednesday, December 12, 2012. Silvio Berlusconi makes a U-turn and declares willingness to back Mario Monti in case of the creation of a broader moderate alliance to beat Italian left-wingers.

Mario Monti, the guy Berlusconi a few days ago dubbed as “beholden to Germany”, acting as a quasi-accomplice of Angela Merkel to try to "topple a majority government elected by the Italians” by using a scam (the spread-scam), leading a government that brought Italy to “the brink of the abyss” is now the favourite candidate of the Italian media tycoon? Can you believe that? Berlusconi is forcing Mario Monti to resign in order to vote for Monti as a Prime Minister?

Yet another brainwave? Or just going nuts?

Italian former Prime Minister took the occasion of a public event – the televised presentation of start TV anchorman Bruno Vespa's latest book – to inform the public of the last of his U-turn. Mr Berlusconi said the he "proposed to Monti to be the candidate as leader for the moderate centre coalition and he said he didn't want to. If his position changes, I would have no problem with stepping back ... I have no personal ambitions".

Silvio Berlusconi and the missing key witness

Monday, December 10, 2012. Key defence witness Karima el Mahroug (aka Ruby the Heart Stealer) does not show up in court for Silvio Berlusconi's sex-related Rubygate trial. It turns out she's in Mexico.

Are you trying to delay the proceedings? Oh, not at all!

Most probably Karima el Mahroug (aka Ruby the Heart Stealer) just forgot the court date (Silvio Berlusconi's trial, he is accused of having paid for her sexual services, as under-age prostitute) when she decided to travel to Mexico, with her boyfriend and one-year-old daughter Sofia Aida.

That's why she was not there last Monday, without notifying her attorney or sending any documentation to justify the absence from the sex-scandal trial. Quite remarkably, Berlusconi's lawyers did not bother to talk to her, just to make sure they'd be on the same page in the court, just to realise she was somewhere else.