Italy's Berlusconi in Trouble?

Silvio Berlusconi may nave immense political and media power, but it hasn't been enough for Italy's billionaire prime minister. When journalists bring to light unpleasant facts such as his association with the mafia, charges against him for bribing judges, and his tailor-made laws to get him and friends off the legal hook, he hasn't liked it.

In its April 28, 2003 issue, The Economist's cover page read "Why Berlusconi is Unfit to Lead Italy." Journalist David Lane wrote the article that chronicled many of Berlusconi's shady dealings. The Italian prime minister sued. Four years later, Lane's still involved in the lawsuit against the magazine.

Lane, the author numerous damning articles on Berlusconi, said Italy's leader doesn't only lack understanding of the role of a critical press in a healthy democracy. He also has been a disaster on the economic front. Even worse, Lane said, Berlusconi has wasted precious energy as a leader claiming he's the victim of a political witch hunt.

"He's always maintained that the foreign press is in league with the centre-left opposition," Lane said. "And despite the fact that The Economist is a notoriously right-wing magazine, he seems to believe that we, in common with other newspapers and magazines from outside Italy, are out to get him."

"Never, never, never…"

In his first appearance as prime minister on public network, Rai, which he now controls, he said the plot against him doesn't stop with left wingers and the foreign press. It includes, well, almost everyone.

"I've always contended that there's the official state and then a parallel state made up of powerful segments of society that are in the hands of the left," Berlusconi said. "They include high schools, universities, newspapers, radios, television, judges, the Constitutional Court, and I'll stop here simply to be charitable to my homeland. Some Italians understand this, but the rest need to see this, too."

Berlusconi went even further, saying that with the exception of one newscaster, Emilio Fede, a notorious Berlusconi cheerleader, his TV channels are unpartisan, and "there have never been attacks on my political rivals."

"It's an amazing lie because Berlusconi last year had important Italian journalists, such as Michele Santoro, Enzo Biagi, fired from public television," explained Tommaso DiBenedetti. The columnist said Berlusconi's favorite method of silencing critics is by firing them. But he's also turned to the courts to put a chill on political debate.

Giovanni Valentini, a journalist at Rome's La Repubblica daily, is one of the many Berlusconi is suing. In the article in question, Valentini identified the prime minister's conflict of interest in pocketing $3 million (3.8 million euros) from TV ads a year. "Don't forget that he's the strongest political man in Europe, one thousand times richer than the American president," Valentini stressed.

Continue reading to find out what voters think


Got the power

La Repubblica is one of the few dailies that has dared to speak out against Berlusconi. One of the reasons it's so outspoken is its owner, Carlo DiBenedetti, who once tried to buy Italy's second-largest publishing house, Mondadore.

Instead, Berlusconi took control of it by bribing judges, David Lane said.

But newspapers don't have a great deal of influence on the Italian public. La Repubblica and l'Unita, the two main papers openly critical of Italy's leader, have a combined circulation of less than 800,000. The real power lies in television.

Berlusconi's three privately owned channels are renowned for combining fluffy entertainment with fawning political talk shows. This lightweight, fun and games combo has been key to swaying a lot of voters, said Giovanni Valentini.

"And we know that about 6 percent of the voters vote under the influence of television. This 6 percent is about 3 million people," Valentini said. "In the last political elections, we had about 600,000 votes between center-left and center-right. This is the problem."

Voters not convinced

But it may not be as big as critics have feared. In April regional elections across the country voters voiced their widespread dissatisfaction with Berlusconi and his government. Candidates from opposition parties swept into power in 11 out of 13 regions. With national elections a year away, voters have shown they're no longer so amenable to Berlusconi's self-serving laws and poor handling of the economy. Nor do they buy his recent explanation for the bad economic outlook -- that Italians don't work hard enough and vacation to much.

Even TV appearances aren't helping this time, according to Tommaso DiBenedetti. "Berlusconi is now over-exposed. And his credibility is really, really weak."

But it's not just a question of overexposure. As Giovanni Valentini said, promotion only works if the product is good. "But when the product is old, is not good, is bad, television is not enough."

And now that Italians are feeling the pinch in their pocketbooks, it seems they may be ready to change the channel.