Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1501361
NEWS 9 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 14 JUNE 2023 Italy's former PM seduced a generation d' Italia in 2022. The obsession with the red togas Yet what distinguished Ber- lusconi's terms in government was his eternal clash with the judiciary whom he derided as 'toghe rosse' (red judges). His 30-yearlong feud with the judiciary started in the most spectacular way when he was served with a notice that he was being investigated for bribes paid to tax inspectors, while presiding a G8 summit in Naples just months after win- ning elections. Berlusconi was furious at being humiliated in front of the world and spent the next decades fighting the judiciary. Despite facing many trials, Berlusconi was to be convict- ed only in one case involving tax evasion to the tune of €7.3 million through illicit trade of movie rights between secret fic- titious companies in the mid- 1990s. This earned him an ex- clusion from public office and a four-year prison sentence, three of which were covered by a pardon. Given his venera- ble age, the former prime min- ister was able to complete his sentence as community service from 2014 to 2015. But in six other cases Berlus- coni was only spared thanks to laws passed by his majority in parliament shortening the time limit for prosecution of vari- ous offences and making false accounting illegal only if there is a specific damaged party re- porting the fact to the author- ities. These laws known as 'leggi ad personam', ultimately exposed the travesty of a politician changing the legal goal posts simply to protect himself from justice. But the most sensational and damaging case saw Ber- lusconi accused of paying an under-age dancer called Ka- rima El Mahroug, known as Ruby the Heartstealer, for sex. Berlusconi was initially con- demned to seven years in jail, but the verdict was overturned in 2014 by an appeals court which ruled there was no proof he had known that she was 17 at the time of the encounter. Ultimately despite promis- ing to modernise Italy and for a time presenting himself as a liberal reformer Berlusconi left little behind him in terms of durable reforms, with most of his time in office wasted in fighting accusations of impro- priety. He was also constantly in debt to his right-wing allies who de- manded their pound of flesh in return for shielding him from judicial probes. To keep them in his fold he became an un- likely champion of ultra con- servative values. He also appealed to macho and homophobic instincts. In 2011 when faced with a media onslaught related to the 'bun- ga bunga' parties he replied' "I have a gruelling work schedule and if I happen to look pretty girls in the face now and then, well then, it's better to be a fan of pretty women than to be gay." Maltese parallels Yet Berlusconi thrived in the polarisation he provoked, serv- ing as the country's prime min- ister from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2011. His electoral success de- spite constant scandals involv- ing himself and close allies like Marcello Del Utri, found guilty of complicity with the Sicilian Casa Nostra, evokes similar- ities with Labour's enduring popularity in Malta. Another similarity lies in the persecution complex which characterised both Berlusco- ni's claim that he was "the Je- sus Christ of Italian politics" and the victim of a conspiracy involving politically motivated judges and the deep state and Muscat's recent claim that 'free masons' and the 'establish- ment' are to blame for the ac- cusations levelled against him. Yet the obsession of Berlusco- ni's opponents with seeing him rot in jail also partly explains his success. This also preclud- ed a focus by the Opposition on everyday life problems and solutions. This too evokes par- allels with the Nationalist Op- position in Malta. Curiously, despite the obvi- ous parallels with Muscat, Ber- lusconi was still revered by lo- cal centre right politicians like David Casa who despite being at the forefront of the battle for the rule of law in Malta, had nothing but praise for Berlus- coni's legacy. But there is an important dis- tinction between Malta and It- aly. While in Italy Berlusconi felt a need to contest elections to protect his interests, no such imperative is felt by the Mal- tese business class whose inter- ests are well taken care for by the established parties. Moreover, none of the cur- rent crop of Maltese business- men display the kind of charis- ma and acumen which made Berlusconi such a successful politician. Berlusconi's Trumpian legacy While it is hard to pinpoint a permanent long-lasting achievement by Berlusconi in terms of his country's mod- ernisation, he was ahead of his time in terms of approach and style. He will go down in history as a precursor of a new kind of right wing populism. His brand of anti-establishment politics, off the cuff remarks and intentional gaffs, his flir- tation with the far right and his diatribes against the judiciary preceded similar traits exhibit- ed by Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in more recent times. Like Berlusconi, Trump also managed to reconcile his rep- utation as a womanizer with a defence of conservative values. And like his Italian counterpart Trump also presents himself as the persecuted victim of hostile judicial forces. Berlusconi's forced resigna- tion from office in 2011 and the substitution of his demo- cratically elected government by a technocratic government led by economist Mario Mon- ti, also left a bitter aftertaste which fed the narrative of the Eurosceptic right-wing not just in Italy but also in other Eu- ropean countries. But in this aspect Berlusconi did not cross the line as Trump did in 2021 by inciting riots in Capitol Hill after he was democratically de- posed from office. In a twist of irony, Berlusco- ni who often invoked the red menace to galvanise his voters could not even end his bro- mance with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin after the brutal invasion of Ukraine. Months into the invasion he even thanked Putin for sending him "20 bottles of vodka and a very sweet letter" for his birth- day. Subsequently he went as far as blaming Ukranian lPresi- dent Volodymyr Zelensky for the war arguing that "all he had to do was to stop attacking the two autonomous republics of the Donbas and this would not have happened." Perhaps his sympathy for Putin was rooted in his soft spot for autocrats who could rise above the law, something which the pesky judges had prevented him from doing in Italy. Berlusconi's success is interlinked to his self-projection as a man of the people who offered an entertainment schedule which was in synch with national popular aspirations