Everybody stands by Silvio Berlusconi?

Sat, 23 March, 2013 (Saint Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo). Apparently Silvio Berlusconi organised a package tour to Rome including show-off of unpresentable candidates, attacks to old enemies and a (unscheduled) strip tease.

“Tutti con Silvio per una nuova Italia” (“Everybody with Silvio, for a new Italy”) was the title of the gathering of the People of Liberty in the Square of the People in Rome, drawn on Twitter as #ConSilvio. Difficult to find a better setting. Though it's unclear how a new Italy could result from somebody who ruled the country for 10 out of the last 20 years, having been its prime minister four times. Anyhow.

Everybody loves Silvio

About 50,000 people showed up in the demonstration, according to Mr Berlusconi's opponents many of them where young pensioners (about 60-year-old, the typical target of

Berlusconi is everywhere, even on toilet rolls

Mon, 18 March, 2013 (Saint Cyril of Jerusalem). Customs officers of the port of Venice find a container full of toilet paper portraying the former prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. 

Toilet rolls that smile at you

The news was first published by the local newspaper Il Gazzettino, that learned how the port of Venice's authorities informed the Public Prosecutor's office about the finding of a container full of toilet rolls with Silvio Berlusconi's photo printed on it (on any single sheet, to be more precisely, you can find a picture of the media tycoon).

As the newspaper acknowledged “heavy loads of goods with a low market value” might hide cigarettes of other smuggled goods, but this wasn't the case.

Berlusconi leaves his worries behind...

Fri, 22 March, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi is portrayed as a driver of a Ford Figo who “leaves his worries behind”, symbolised by Ruby the Heartstealer, Francesca Pascale and Nicole Minetti tied up and gagged in the boot of the car.

The infamous advert created for Ford India,

with Karima-Ruby, Francesca and Nicole

A drawing appearing on the Ford Figo's ad by Ford India Ltd shows three curvaceous women – namely belly dancer Karima El Mahroug aka Ruby the Heart Breaker, Silvio Berlusconi's girlfriend Francesca Pascale and (former) sweetheart Nicole Minetti – hands a feet tied, muzzled, in the rear booth of a red car, whilst the former Italian prime minister is sitting in front of the vehicle, at the wheel, smiling and showing the V sign.

«Leave your worries behind with Figo's extra-large boot» reads the claim on the bottom of the page, obviously referring to Silvio's headaches about bunga-bunga parties, sex scandal trials, and other matters related to women.

Not exactly something that Berlusconi would find funny – we presume – and not exactly something in a good taste – we might say – considering the poor record of India in terms of behaviour of men towards women.

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).

Berlusconi returns to the Senate of Italy, just to witness the defeat of his speaker candidate

Sat, 16 March, 2013. After leaving the hospital where he was cured for an eye conditions Silvio Berlusconi returns to the Senate of Italy, welcomed by protesters' boos and jeers

Facing court trial both on tax fraud and sex charges for paying and under-age prostitute (Karima El Mahroug aka Ruby the Heart Stealer), Silvio Berlusconi chose – at least this is prosecutor of the sex scandal proceedings, Ilda Boccassini's theory – to seek refuge in hospital, with the excuse (according to prosecution) of curing a form conjunctivitis called uveitis.

The new look of Silvio Berlusconi (attending to a session of the  Senate of Italy)

In the meanwhile Silvio's lawyers, who managed to see the former Italian prime minister's «legitimate impediment» recognised, are trying A) to move the proceedings to Brescia and B) to seek for a «legitimate impediment» for themselves (for political reasons, since they have to attend to meetings and gatherings, being members of the PdL – People of Liberty party).

Manoeuvres to gain time (according to the leftist prosecutors). But this isn't the point.

The point is that - finally - Silvio Berlusconi last Saturday had to leave the hospital, in order to participate to a vote in the Senate, where the speaker was about to be elected.

He was showing off an unusual pair of sunglasses, proof of the eye condition the prosecutors refused to believe.

Silvio Berlusconi's supporters «silent protesting»

Monday, 11 March, 2013 (Saint Leander of Seville). As the Vatican's cardinals join the papal conclave a crowd of centre-right lawmakers protest against Silvio Berlusconi going on trial on charges of paying for sex with an ander-age girl and abusing of his power as PM.

The plan A was to avoid the trial by sending a fax (a few faxes) stating that Silvio Berlusconi conjunctivitis-caused sensitivity to light (or uveitis, to be more precise, see our blog's post on the sunbject by clicking here) doesn't allow the former prime minister of Italy to attend to the so called Rubygate sex scandal trial Monday's session.

But it didn't work out, because of «a Stalinist court that sent Nazi doctors to examine Berlusconi,», said the Berlusconi's PdL (People of Liberty) Party exponent's Fabrizio Cicchitto (who - by the way - is a former Marxist-winger of the Italian Socialist Party; he might even know something about Stalinism and Nazism, innit?). A "Stalinist court", which is "more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia", we might say, combining Cicchitto version with Silvio's opinion.

Souvenir photo of a "silent protest" in favour of Silvio Berlusconi. Can you spot anyone?

Anyhow. The plan did not work out, so the staunch supporters of Silvio had to do something, and they decided to go for a “silent protest” (even though Silvio himself told them refrain from doing so... but did he really meant it?).

Silvio Berlusconi and his sensitivity to light

Saturday, 9 March, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi takes refuge from Italian judiciary in Milan hospital as two of his trials resume and the country gets stuck in political deadlock.

Last Saturday Silvio Berlusconi was expected to appear in court – the Mediaset trial was on, and the Rubygate was also reaching its apex – but his lawyers gave way to an «escalation of medical certifications» (as prosecutor Ilda Boccassini put it) in order to provide the former prime minister of Italy with a «legitimate impediment», a lawful excuse not to attend.

Cicchitto: «a Stalinist court that sent Nazi doctors to examine Berlusconi,»

What's the matter with him? Uveitis, a kind of conjunctivitis that causes sensitivity to light, headaches, blurred vision and other unpleasant symptoms. Not many chances that the judiciary and Silvio Belusconi will get to see eye to eye... The media tycoon has being treated at Milan's San Raffaele hospital.

It partially worked, as Silvio's request was accepted by the Ruby sex scandal case court, but was rejected by «a Stalinist court that sent Nazi doctors to examine Berlusconi,», as Fabrizio Cicchitto - a top official in the People of Freedom party (PDL) - put it, and found out that Berlusconi could easily attend to a trial, perhaps wearing a fashionable pair of sunglasses. (Translator's note: Historians might find it remarkable that Nazis and Bolsheviks finally found a way to join their goals, just for the sake of bringing Silvio down...).

Silvio Berlusconi and the 1-year prison sentence

Thu, 7 March, 2013 (Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs). Silvio Berlusconi collects another jail sentence as the Unipol case ends, even though the former premier's lawyers stated that «the evidence against [SB] is insufficient.».

Not long ago Silvio Berlusconi could boast of never being sentenced to a single day of prison in spite of the number of trials – more than one hundred – where he has been indicted, for a reason or another (but mainly due to the aggressiveness of the left-wing magistrates, according to the former prime minister of Italy).

One of Silvio's trials

This statement isn't true any more, since in October 2012 he collected the first 4-year sentence at the Mediaset-trial (a decision that made him rethink his retirement from politics...), and in March 2013 he managed to gain another year in prison, due to the Unipol case (when an insurance company – Unipol – takeover bid by Rome's bank Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in 2005 led to the resignation of the governor of the Bank of Italy, Antonio Fazio).

Has Silvio Berlusconi been running a “prostitution ring”?

Monday, 4 March, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi has been running a prostitution ring, according to prosecutors' final arguments in the last episode of the Rubygate sex scandal related proceedings.

Karima El-Mahroug, aka Ruby the Heart Stealer

Silvio Berlusconi is on trial – he managed to postpone the proceeding, due to the general elections, but now he is running out of excuses... -, since he is accused of soliciting an under-age prostitute (the Moroccan Karima el-Mahroug, also known as Ruby Rubacuori i.e. Ruby Heart Stealer) and for abuse of power, for having managed to free the aforementioned Ruby Heart Stealer from the strong arm of the law, and ushered her into the hands of Milan's municipality's councillor (party-organizer and part-time bikini-model) Nicole Minetti, by illicit means (amongst them he apparently said to the police that Karima-Ruby - apparently - was the granddaughter of Egypt's former dictator Hosni Mubarak).

Silvio Berlusconi heading to the court

By doing this, Silvio – who at the time was Italy's prime minister – recruited the Moroccan belly-dancer (and alleged call girl) into the bunga-bunga army, a bunch of young women - the bunga-bunga girls - to be used for entertainment during parties in his villa in Arcore. The women used to get a bed where to sleep, 2,500 euro a month ($3,250 or £2,160), plus gifts and presents in case of birthdays or name days.

The prosecutor – Antonio Sangermano – said that Karima El-Mahroug (who was 17, when first attended a so-called bunga-bunga party) was "an integral part" of a "complex prostitution ring". In the next days the prosecutors will publish the requested sentence, the defence will reply on 11 March, and on 18 March the trail will end with a verdict.

All this is hardly likely to help the difficult relationship between the former premier of Italy and the Italian Judiciary, which – according to Silvio Berlusconi – is «more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia,».