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).