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.

So, it's 10 November 2012, and Sicilian (he was born in Agrigento) Angelino Alfano – PdL's (People of liberty) secretary – is invited to Porta a Porta, where the main topic is the Nobel Prize awarded to the European Union, but there will be time and place to talk about the decision of the PdL to withdraw its support to Mario Monti's government.

As the discussion gets to the not-so-rosy current picture of the current situation of PdL, things get nastier. “Many of the troubles of our party stem from subjects like [PdL's Senator] Marcello Dell'Utri which is a miserable man” says Alfano in front of millions of TV viewers “who freely talks nonsense without any sense of responsibility”.

But Palermo-born Marcello Dell'Utri is a bigwig within the party, being a very good friend of Silvio Berlusconi, he founded Forza Italia together with the Italian billionaire back in 1994, and he will strike back.

... Dell'Utri will strike back!

As soon as Dell'Utri – who did not take part in the talk show – overheard Alfano's accuses (prodded by a bunch of journalists), declared “I don't want to reply to Alfano” (meaning: “listen to me now, 'coz I will reply to him right now”) “but I said FIRST that HE IS a miserable man, he is just repeating my words” and “PdL's troubles all come from his incompetence, his stupidity. He has no balls, he has nothing to do with us.

As Dell'Utri is a very good friend of Silvio Berlusconi, Angelino Alfano is a “protégée” of Renato Schifani - who is currently chairing the Senate of Italy -, another politician native of Palermo... it might come to a sticky end, isn't it?

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