That Silvio Berlusconi’s party name “Forza Italia” or “Go Italy!” is also a national soccer cry already tells you plenty about Italy’s popular prime minister. For Berlusconi, politics, like soccer, is a sport of fancy footwork and well-timed passing.
Indicted for bribing judges? Pass a law rendering you and your top officials immune from prosecution while in office. Concerned that your almost total control of the Italian mass media looks like a conflict of interest? Pass a law redefining what “mere ownership” really means. Now, as Berlusconi settles into the rotating European Union presidency, the man who likes rules best when they don’t apply to him is in for some closer scrutiny.
Guests:
Franco Pavoncello, dean of academic affairs, John Cabot University, Rome
James Walston, head of the department of international relations, American University in Rome
Maurizio Molinari, New York correspondent, La Stampa