Sir, That Franco Frattini (Letters, August 4) sings the praises of Silvio Berlusconi and of his abilities to deal with issues on which there is ample evidence to argue the opposite – from the rubbish emergency to the post-earthquake reconstruction, to the state of the Italian economy – should not surprise: the minister of foreign affairs belongs to the quite large group of centre-right politicians who owe their political careers largely, if not solely, to Mr Berlusconi. In the name of his loyalty to the boss, one could even tolerate the way Mr Frattini conveniently misses the central point of Geoff Andrews’ article (July 31) – Italy’s pervasive corruption and the overall state of the country’s democracy – in order to concentrate on his eulogy to the Italian prime minister.
What cannot be accepted, however, is Mr Frattini’s use of partial or false information to make his case. For one thing, Mr Berlusconi has not “always been acquitted” from the many charges against him, having in several cases avoided being found guilty of proven crimes thanks to statute of limitations rules or amnesties. Second, one must not forget how some of Mr Berlusconi’s acquittals have resulted from laws that abolished crimes – most notably the one on accounting fraud – passed by his own parliamentary majority between 2001 and 2006.
These are facts, not opinions. And a minister of the Italian Republic should have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge them.
Piero Tortola,
University of Oxford,
UK
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento