Melomane-news: Berlusconi's woes fail to rally the left

domenica 11 ottobre 2009

Berlusconi's woes fail to rally the left

Just as Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's centre-right prime minister dogged by sex scandals and court cases, was defending his record yesterday at a press conference broadcast live on television, a protest march by left-wing students and workers passed largely unnoticed on the other side of the Tiber. "These pieces of shit who are stealing our future! On to victory! On to victory!" called a student leader, his voice echoing over loudspeakers surrounded by red banners. But despite the rallying cry, the mood among the thin crowd was distinctly despondent. "Lots of polemics, but the left is splintered," admitted Silvia Cannizzo, a 16-year-old high-school student, noting the disintegration of the radical left since the 2008 elections resulted in not a single communist sitting in parliament for the first time in decades. "Berlusconi should resign immediately, with all his ministers. But there is no strong voice in parliament to say this," she said. "The left has lost its way, lost its ideals," lamented Federica, 23, distributing copies of La Commune published by the Revolutionary Socialists. "He will never resign with all his power." Indeed, although this has been one of the grimmest weeks for Mr Berlusconi and his media empire since he entered politics 15 years ago, the 73-year-old billionaire shows no sign of an early exit. Patrizia D'Addario, a prostitute at the centre of reporting on his love of parties and showgirls, de-scribed on television their time together, paid for by a businessman under investigation for corruption. A court in Milan ordered Mr Berlusconi's Fininvest company to pay €750m (£690m, $1.1bn) damages in a civil case in which the judge said he was "coresponsible" for bribing another judge in 1991. And finally the Constitutional Court struck down a law that had given him immunity, paving the way for two corruption trials to resume against him. Yet the Democrats, the main centre-left opposition party, could find no coherent response to Mr Berlusconi's insistence that he will serve out his term, until 2013.