Silvio Berlusconi and the necessity of bribery

Thursday, February 14, 2013 (Valentine's Day). Silvio Berlusconi commented the recent corruption scandals inItaly slamming as "moralising" and stating that bribes are just a "necessary part of the business".

If you have been wondering why Italy is the last Western European country in the corruption ranking (according to the non-governmental organization Transparency International), well Silvio Berlusconi has answer to that, by declaring that bribery is not a crime, but just a “commission” to be paid (by the way, Silvio has been condemned for fraud in the past...), as he was interviewed on Rai3 television programme “Agorà”.

How to bewitch people on the radio?

«Stop moralising» said the former Italian prime minister, «one cannot be an entrepreneur on a global scale without bribes». Berlusconi himself has been accused of bribery, for instance in the Mills case.

Once again, the former Italian prime minister tried to please some of his potential voters, by saying something with his foot in the mouth (“if anything, the media will talk about me”, he thinks, and he is rarely wrong, and quite ubiquitously present on almost any Italian headlines), in a moment when – due to the recent scandals involving Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest bank in the world – some observers (and prime minister Mario Monti) reckon Italy is in a worse situation than during the Mani Pulite era, in the beginning of the 90s.

Sweethearts on Valentine's Day

So Transparency International became a bit  wary the the concept perhaps wasn't so clear   and decided to publish a reminder to Italy (not only to Mr Berlusconi) that bribery is against the law, just in case.

Most probably the guy that provoke the statement didn't even realised it, when finished creating his usual share of turmoil, Silvio relaxed and went out for dinner with his girlfriend and would-be First Lady Francesca Pascale. Jokes (as usual) and prayers were served by the former premier.

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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?