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| Birth Name(s) : Silvio Berlusconi |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Single
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| Profession:
Public Figure |
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Full Silvio Berlusconi Biography
Silvio Berlusconi (help·info) (born September 29, 1936) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor. He is the leader of the Forza Italia political movement, a centre-right party he founded in 1993 in Rome. Berlusconi has twice held office as prime minister of Italy, most recently from 2001 to 2006.
Many well informed people have argued that Berlusconi entered into politics for completely self-interested reasons: saving his own companies from bankruptcy and himself from convictions. According to journalist Marco Travaglio, Berlusconi "never hid from anyone. From the very beginning he said it clearly to his associates (and also to Biagi and to Montanelli): If I don't enter politics, I'm going to jail and into bankruptcy". From the very beginning he said it clearly to his associates. On the other hand, Berlusconi's supporters hailed him as the "new man", an outsider who was going to bring a new efficiency to the public bureaucracy and reform the state from top to bottom. They argued that he was too rich to have any interest in using politics to become even richer, and that, regarding his judicial trials, his opponents were just trying to get rid of him by way of judicial persecution.
The Court of Cassation has validated the voting procedures and determined that the election process was constitutional, thus confirming at present the election results.
A less known law made the so called "Articolo 41 bis" punitive jail regime for mafia leaders a permanent provision. Under previous law, it had to be confirmed every two years.
Other pieces of legislation included:
- the decriminalization of false account statements;
- the suspension of trials against the highest officers of the state during their terms (this law was later declared unconstitutional);
- a much shorter statute of limitation for white-collar crimes, coupled with an increase in sanctions for repeated offenders. The opposition argued that this law was designed to save a close friend of Berlusconi, Cesare Previti, from corruption charges; however, after modifications by parliament, Previti was excluded by the benefits of this law.
Berlusconi's influence over RAI became evident when in Sofia, Bulgaria he expressed his views on the journalists Enzo Biagi, Michele Santoro , and comedian Daniele Luttazzi. Berlusconi said that they "use television as a criminal mean of communication". Immediately, they lost their jobs.
In March 2006, on the Rai Tre, in a television interview with Lucia Annunziata, he left the studio because of a contrast with the journalist on the economic aftermath of his government. .
Berlusconi later (1989) sued three journalists for libel for writing articles hinting at his involvement in financial crimes. In the court, he declared that he had joined the P2 lodge "only for a very short time before the scandal broke" and "he had not even paid the entry fee". Such statements, however, conflicted with the findings of the parliamentary commission appointed to investigate the lodge's activity, with material evidence, and even with previous testimony of Berlusconi, all of which showing that he had actually been a member of P2 since 1978 and had indeed paid a 100,000 Italian liras entry fee. Because of this a court of appeal condemned him for perjury in 1990, but crime was extinguished by the previous 1989 amnesty so he was never actually jailed.
Actually, the main fact related to Berlusconi’s P2 membership has been not pointed out by the just mentioned trial, since Berlusconi was not a normal P2 member.
Berlusconi has also been indicted in Spain for charges of tax fraud and violation of anti-trust laws regarding the private TV network Telecinco, but his status as a member of the European Parliament allowed him to gain immunity from prosecution 16.
Possible connections of Berlusconi to the Sicilian Mafia are also mentioned. The accusations arise mostly from the hiring of the Vittorio Mangano, charged for Mafia association, as a gardner and stable man at Berlusconi's Villa San Martino in Arcore, a small town near Milan. It was Berlusconi's long time friend and righthand man Marcello Dell'Utri who introduced Mangano in 1973. Mangano's real job is alleged to have been to deter kidnappers from targeting the tycoon's children. Berlusconi denies any ties to the Mafia. |
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