Up To 1 Million Protest Berlusconi In Italy

NOT THAT LONG AGO, I WROTE THAT Italy's right-wing, billionaire Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi was losing his marbles under the pressure of upcoming corruption trials, a looming (and, likely, very costly) divorce and his fall in popularity. Well, I'm happy to report that his troubles have now broken out into open protests on the streets of Italy. According to organizers there were a million people there. Police said 90,000 but then cops are liars, so who listens to them?
This is a good sign, not only because the B man deserves to be shown the door. Even more important, the left has been in disarray since the last election that Berlusconi's coalition of regular right-wing slimers and open fascists won. In part his victory was a result of the main far left party, Rifondazione Communista, prioritizing electoral maneuvers with the center left, which discredited them, over popular mobilizations. Hopefully this will give a boost to the demoralized and depressed on the left. Nothing like making a right-winger go bananas to improve your sense of perspective.

Italy's Berlusconi Losing His Marbles

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, THE ULTRA-RIGHT SCUMBAG Premier of Italy, who governs with the support of open fascists, seems to be going off the deep end. At the moment there's a lot of pressure on him with political, personal and legal problems. His parliamentary immunity has been removed, meaning he has to face trial for tax evasion and corruption. His wife is also dumping him and wants a big chunk of his vast empire for her children by him - at present it is his older children by his first marriage who are the powerbrokers. There is speculation that she could ruin him by revealing some of his dirty dealings. And he won't get much sympathy from Italian women, it seems, since his publicly sexist shenanigans have finally pissed off the womenfolk that they've taken up a petition against, him garnering 100,000 signatures in a few days, after he stated that a female political opponent was "more beautiful than intelligent." This is a guy who once suggested that women “cook on Election Day and bring that to the polling station to be examined” rather than express political views. And his overall support has been falling - though it has been so slow that one wonders what is in the Italian drinking water and whether it's been shipped there from Canada or vice versa.
It is, in any case, truly entertaining to see Berlusconi come unhinged with comments like the following:

And this weekend it emerged that Berlusconi has been avoiding his usual Rome residence because he believes he is under threat from al-Qa'ida. "I am very worried," he was quoted as saying in Italy's main daily, Corriere della Sera, and other newspapers on Sunday. "There is someone who wants to blow me up."

Or this wacky broadside attack on Italy's magistrates - that almost led to a strike by the judges - for investigating his dubious business dealings:

"The real Italian anomaly is not Silvio Berlusconi," the premier said on TV. "The Italian anomaly are communist prosecutors and communist judges in Milan who have attacked him since Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and took (political) power away from communists."

Perhaps their suspicions have arisen because of the repeated and widespread links to the mafia that have emerged over the years. Or the fact that billionaire Berlusconi controls 90% of the media, leading Freedom House to downgrade Italy's media to only "partly free" because of his political interference. Perhaps it's his acknowledged use of prostitutes for entertainment at private parties. Whatever it is, this dirtbag has a long history of nastiness and his present conundrum may be the arrival of a perfect storm that damages him fatally. With talk of an election as a result of his difficulties, we can always dream...