On the eve of All Souls Day in Italy, when the dead are remembered and, in some regions, are believed to walk among us, Silvio Berlusconi’s ghost was alive and kicking.
The Italian Senate finally passed the legislation to reduce the independence of the prosecuting authorities, and the proposal will go to a national referendum in March or April next year.
To celebrate, Berlusconi’s image was paraded around Rome as if he were a departed saint, perhaps the patron saint of unhappy defendants.
Berlusconi’s daughter and head of the family media company Mediaset, Marina Berlusconi, left no doubt when she released the following statement:
“There are victories that arrive late, sometimes too late, but that are still great and decisive. What happened today is the victory of my father, Berlusconi. It was his power, his courage, his determination and, unfortunately, also his suffering, that have made possible a day that signals an important step forward for democracy and for truth in this country.”
Silvio had a chequered history with the courts. The conviction that withstood appeal was for the evasion of €7 million in tax. He served his prison sentence by undertaking community service in an old people’s home for about a year, and from 2013 was barred from public office for six years.
Many charges against Berlusconi were proved at trial, but dismissed on appeal. The most notorious was soliciting a young women for prostitution – the famous Rubi Rubicuore (Rubi the Heart-Stealer) case.
Along with other teens she attended the “Bunga Bunga” parties at Berlusconi’s Milan home. None of the youngsters could remember what happened as most of them were hoping for jobs as weather girls on one of the Prime Minister’s multitude of TV stations.
The Senate’s final vote was 112 in favour. The 59 votes against came from the opposition Partito Democratico (PD), and also – surprisingly – the anarchistic 5 Star Movement. Among the nine abstentions was the former leader of the PD, Matteo Renzi, who now heads a micro personality-based party.
On television that night, Prime Minister Meloni warned the National Association of Judges and Magistrates that this “reform of the justice system” would probably be supported by the people in the referendum vote.
Attorney General Nordio warned the Association not to get politically involved during the referendum debate:
“This would be catastrophic for politics but above all for the judiciary.”
In response, the Association issued a statement:
“This reform does not make justice faster or more efficient but makes it more exposed to external influences.”
On the day the legislation passed, Italian government ministers launched blistering attacks on the judges of a specialist court that audits government accounts.
The court held that the contracts for the long-promised bridge from the mainland to Sicily did not meet EU standards.
Prime Minister Meloni complained that this was the court’s “umpteenth invasion of the jurisdiction and decisions of the government and parliament”.
Wiser heads then warned of a “boomerang” effect – that the voting public would see some justice in the opposition’s warnings that this legislation was simply an attempt by the government ministers to put themselves in a position where they could not be bound by the courts or the constitution.