Silvio Berlusconi and the shock proposal to make Swiss bankers fund Italian property tax reimbursement

Sunday, February 3, 2013. “Even imbeciles are able to invent new taxes” says Silvio Berlusconi, explaining that he is an intelligent one who will make the Swiss pay for it.

Silvio Berlusconi had a vision: in the first meeting of the new ministers' cabinet – where the newly elected Silvio will play the role of the Economy and Finance Minister – there will be decided the scrapping of the unpopular property tax called IMU, and the reimbursement of the tax the Italians paid during 2012 (the media tycoon called it a «shock proposal», his rival Gianfranco Fini, the chair of the house of representatives, has another idea, he replied on Twitter that in his second cabinet meeting, Berlusconi would «decree that everybody wins the lottery»).

Promises, promises!

How? In a previous attempt to convince the Italians how he would abolish the propriety tax (when the former prime minister faced his long-term enemy Michele Santoro on his TV show) Silvio Berlusconi declared he would raise new taxes on tobaccos, spirits and gambling.

Then the ex-premier of Italy realised that he needs to be (even) smarter. «Even imbeciles are able to invent news taxes», declared the billionaire to his supporters yesterday, on a speech in Milan, then he pledged to convince the Swiss banks to help him to tax Italian assets and activities in Switzerland. Not only they have to pay a one off tribute of 25 billion euro (about £21.7bn or $33.9bn), but – in Silvio's mind – they will be keeping on paying €5bn every year.

Doesn't it sound as a tax, Silvio? Are you an imbecile?

Anyhow, the problem isn't exactly there - someone would argue – but in the fact that nobody ever convinced the Swiss bankers to do so! 

Never mind, thinks Silvio, they (the new government made up by the People of Liberty party and friends) will do it, they will convince them.

And in the meanwhile, they take – as a loan – the money from the postal savings system (CDP).

Simple, isn't it?

Silvio Berlusconi and the “bad apple” in his team

Wednesday, January 30, 2013. After being slammed as “bad apple” by AC Milan's owner Silvio Berlusconi only a couple of weeks before, footballer Mario Balotelli wears the red-and-black shirt for the first time.

Super Mario Balotelli

Former striker of Inter Milan and Manchester City and Italian National football team's player Mario Balotelli is  travelling to Milan today, as hundreds of texts and tweets anticipated in the previous days.

A jubilant Barbara Berlusconi – member of AC Milan's board of directors and Silvio Berlusconi's daughter – declared to Italian news agency ANSA how the team could manage to make a major hit by acquiring from British football club Manchester City the talented Mario Balotelli, while her father – in mid January – said that the young striker was a “rotten apple” (alluding to the young talent's sometimes problematic behaviour) who could "infect any group or team, even AC Milan" and there was no interest in him.

Silvio: "Rotten apple"

In Silvio's words: "No one from my club has held any talks with him, and neither [Vice Executive President and CEO Adriano] Galliani nor I has identified him as a transfer target.". The AC Milan's management seemed also wary about spending 20 million euro (£17.2m or $27m) in order to sign the player of Ghanaian descent (here's the Mario's page on Wikipedia).

Well, in the world of football it is a widespread (and somehow understandable) practice to deny any interest in players when a negotiation is on course, but did Silvio Berlusconi really have the necessity to call Mario a “rotten apple” and say that he is prone to "infect" his team, only in order to apologise the day after?

Barbara: "Major hit"

Sometimes it looks like if the former prime minister of Italy just love to say things that well soon need any apology, perhaps in order to get exposure to the media twice: when he says something nasty or rude, and when he makes amends, playing good cop/bad cop all by himself. Have a look at Silvio's quotes, to get an idea...

Massimo Moratti - the president of AC Milan's derby rival Internazionale Milan - said to journalists that the signing of Mario "Bad Boy" Balotelli will be "useful to Berlusconi in many ways" hinting at  political motives. Forecasters state that the player's transfer might contribute to the former prime minister's People of Liberty party's polls with 2 percentage points in next month elections.

One's for sure: as you can see from the photo, Mario Balotelli's (commonly known as Super Mario, for his talent) hairstyle is not going to improve the “hair war” within the Italian football team (see our blog's article “Silvio Berlusconi and the cockscomb of the Pharaoh”).

Mario Balotelli: is he worth 400,000 votes?

Silvio Berlusconi reckons Benito Mussolini did quite well, actually, apart from those racial laws

Sunday, January 27, 2013. On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Silvio Berlusconi finds it compelling to defend Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's deeds, another victim of the “German power”, before taking a nap on a ceremony about the Shoah he wasn't even invited to.

Sleeping the sleep of the just?

It hasn't been the first time that Silvio Berlusconi felt like defending "poor" Mussolini, who – in the view of the former Italian prime minister – was a “benevolent leader”, who “never killed anybody” and just used to “send people on holiday”, but this time the timing seemed to be really dodgy, even for the prone-to-blunder media tycoon. 

On Sunday Silvio took part in the inauguration of a monument to the deported of the Shoah, and he must have though "what a better occasion than this one, to praise good ol' Benito?".