I’ve been a bit too snowed under with work recently to write much about what’s going on in Italy. Meanwhile though, little storms have been blowing up all over the place in the Living Museum.
To kick off, we’ve got the allegations of corruption leveled at the head of Italy’s civil defence organisation Guido Bertolaso still fizzling away, although Bertolaso seems to have manged to evade most of the flack.
The Bertolaso affair, though, was merely the tip of an iceberg.
Money Laundering Corporations
Next up there has been a huge money-laundering scandal involving a senior Italian politician who has now resigned after facing allegations that he only managed to obtain his seat in the Italian parliament as a result of mafia organised vote-rigging.
The money laundering scandal is still at full blaze, and today the former head of one of Italy’s biggest internet providers Fastweb, is having long and not so cozy chats with investigators.
But there’s more:
Election Bungle
Belusconi’s party is at the centre of one almighty election bungle which is giving the impression that left and right hands within his party have no idea what is going on.
The net result of this right royal foul up, which has angered Berlusconi, is that Berlusconi’s party might well be excluded from forthcoming regional elections in both Lazio and Lombardy.
Lazio and Lombardy are key regions for Berlusconi’s party, so if the mess is not put right, things will be awfully embarrassing for dear Silvio.
Taliban Judges
On the subject of Berlusconi, he recently refered to Italian judges as ‘Taliban’, much to their general disgust. However Italy’s judges might have the last laugh, as it is to them Berlusconi must turn to help sort out the election bungle.
One can see Berlusconi trying to butter up to the judges now: “Now when I said Taliban, I did not really mean Taliban in any malicious sense. I was just joking. Can’t a guy crack a little joke in Italy?”.
Boy, would I like to be a fly on the wall in Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party HQ at the moment. Sparks, and other objects, must be flying! The heating system simply will not be necessary. There’ll be enough hot air to take a hot air balloon to the moon, and back!
Legtimate Impediment
The latest, and functional, ‘keep Berlusconi out of jail’ card goes by the name of ‘legitimate impediment’, which means whenever someone would like dear Silvio to make an appearance in court, seeing as he’s the prime minister of Italy, he can find a ‘legitimate’ excuse not to do so.
Recently, Berlusconi’s crack legal team has tried to use the legitimate impediment card on the grounds that normal everyday prime ministerial activities constitute legitimate impediment. Italy’s, Taliban, judges did not agree with Berlusconi’s lawyers’ interpretation as to what is legitimate impediment, and told Silvio to be a good chap and turn up in court when summonsed.
I think we can expect the legitimate impediment law to be ‘reformed’ quite soon…!
Italian Economy
“Bleak”, is the word which springs to mind when describing prospects for Italy’s economy. Production is down, and GDP is at its lowest for nearly 40 years. Only one thing is up: Unemployment. Not good.
Italy’s politicians need to pull their fingers out and organise some real reform, but they won’t.
The Italian world is doing its usual trick of whizzing along and standing still at the same time. Keeping up with it all is a little like trying to juggle 10 mini-Milan Duomo replicas all at once. Not that easy.
Oh, by the way, it’s a glorious day in Milan today.
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