VARIOUS/FILE: Italy is awash with resignation talk as some believe PM Silvio Berlusconi may follow in the footsteps of his Greek counterpart and stand down as the economy falters

Record ID: 899162

  • Title: VARIOUS/FILE: Italy is awash with resignation talk as some believe PM Silvio Berlusconi may follow in the footsteps of his Greek counterpart and stand down as the economy falters
  • Date: 8th November 2011
  • Summary: MILAN, ITALY (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE - MAY 13, 2001) (REUTERS) ***FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BERLUSCONI VOTING AND SHAKING HANDS WITH ELECTION OFFICIALS ROME, ITALY (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE - MAY 27, 2002) (REUTERS) BERLUSCONI WELCOMING U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AT VILLA MADAMA MILAN, ITALY (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE - JUNE 17, 2003) (REUTERS) BERLUSCONI IN COURTROOM ADDRESSING JUDGES BERLUSCONI SURROUNDED BY BOOING CROWD AS HE LEAVES COURTROOM
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2011 21:27
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Germany, Usa, France
  • City:
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5N2CCRPXOPPKJOWMBUVZ2L3Y9
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has dismissed swirling rumours that he was on the point of resigning, a senior lawmaker in his ruling centre-right coalition said on Monday (November 7).
    "I spoke to the prime minister a short time ago and he told me the rumours of his resignation were baseless," Fabrizio Cicchitto, head of the parliamentary group of Berlusconi's PDL party said in a statement.
    Separately, Italian news agency ANSA quoted Berlusconi, also dismissing the talk as baseless.
    Berlusconi has one day left to win over waverers and see off a group of party rebels threatening to bring down his government in a backlash over its failure to adopt reforms to defuse a dangerous debt crisis.
    Estimates vary widely over how many centre-right deputies will jump ship in a crunch vote on public finance in the Chamber of Deputies (parliament) on Tuesday (November 8). Berlusconi's message to potential "traitors" is clear: you have nowhere else to go and you will be rewarded if you stay.
    Silvio Berlusconi burst onto Italy's political stage in January 1994, promising an economic miracle and a new era of accountability to an electorate tired of decades of corruption and political uncertainly. Within four months he created a new political party from scratch and won national elections that made him Prime Minister.
    A billionaire soccer, supermarket and media tycoon, Berlusconi controlled 90 percent of Italy's mainstream television through his ownership of private broadcaster Mediaset and indirect influence over state broadcaster RAI. His network of family businesses included Italy's biggest advertising agency, a massive publishing house, huge real estate interests and the glamorous AC Milan football club.
    Born in Milan on September 29, 1936, Berlusconi showed entrepreneurial skills at an early age and is reported to have sold essays to less gifted classmates for a small fee.
    The son of a bank employee, Berlusconi likes to talk about his humble past. He sang on cruise liners for extra cash during college and worked briefly as a vacuum cleaner salesman.
    He was general manager of a building contracting firm by the age of 23 and rode the Milan property boom of the 1960s, building high-rise housing estates for the city's nouveaux riches.
    He took advantage of government deregulation of the television industry in the mid-1970s to buy his first station, a small Milan-based shopping channel, and by 1986 had captured around 80 per cent of Italy's commercial TV market.
    Using his money, influence and media savvy, Berlusconi created his right-wing Forza Italia party and joined forces with the federalist Northern League and the neo-fascist National Alliance to contest the March 1994 election. Their centre-right Freedom Alliance romped to a landslide victory in Italy's most dramatic general election for nearly 50 years.
    With Berlusconi's astonishing rise to power came hopes that some stability might enter Italy's volatile political scene, but feuding amongst his coalition partners soon surfaced. The government collapsed within months of the 1994 elections and Berlusconi lost the premiership less than a year into office.
    The next six years were spent in the political wilderness as the Freedom Alliance failed to win support in national and local elections and Berlusconi's calibre as leader was openly questioned.
    In January 1996 he went on trial accused of bribing tax inspectors in return for advantageous audits. He was found guilty and handed a two-year, nine-month prison term, but was later acquitted.
    Some political pundits dismissed Berlusconi as a mercurial tycoon who had mistakenly stumbled into politics. But Berlusconi proved them wrong with a triumphant return to power in May 2001 when his Freedom Alliance was elected with the biggest majority in the history of the Italian Republic.
    In foreign policy Berlusconi fostered close relations with the United States. He was an ardent supporter of U.S. President George W. Bush and one of his closest allies during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
    Berlusconi continued to be embroiled in a string of law suits. He faced more than 400 investigations in a decade and stood trial in eight cases on charges ranging from bribery and corruption to false book keeping and tax fraud.
    After several lengthy trials and appeals he was eventually cleared, either on merit or because of the statute of limitations. Critics accused him of using his political power to water down laws on false accounting and briefly winning himself immunity from prosecution.
    In July 2003 Berlusconi hoped his stewardship of the European Union presidency would boost his international prestige and dispel doubts about his commitment to EU ideals, but his six month term began with controversy and ended in failure. Berlusconi caused uproar during his presentation to the European Parliament when he likened a German lawmaker to a Nazi death camp commander. He also failed to achieve agreement on a new EU Constitution by the end of his six month rotation.
    Some EU diplomats complained that he fostered close relations with the United States and Russia at the expense of Italy's traditionally strong European ties. Berlusconi further ruffled EU feathers by suggesting that Russia should become a fully-fledged member of the rapidly enlarging EU bloc.
    Over Christmas 2003, the image conscious 67 year-old Berlusconi disappeared from view for more than a month while he battled against the ageing process with a series of operations including a face lift.
    The following August, while on holiday in Sardinia, his choice of headgear during a visit from British Prime Minister Tony Blair at first prompted comments about a fashion faux pas. The bandana was later revealed to be protection following hair transplant surgery. Berlusconi maintains his youthful appearance makes him a better ambassador for Italy.
    Following the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, Berlusconi led the country in three days of national mourning. He also attended the inaugural mass of John Paul II's successor Pope Benedict XVI.
    Berlusconi's centre-right coalition suffered a crushing defeat at regional elections in April 2005, losing 11 of the 13 regions contested. He failed to restore his flagging popularity during the next twelve months and lost the April 2006 general election by the narrowest margin in Italian history.
    After three weeks of political wrangling Berlusconi conceded defeat opening the way for his arch rival, former European Commission President Romano Prodi, to form a government.
    In November 2006 Berlusconi was found to have an irregular heartbeat after he fainted while addressing a rally and had to be carried off the stage. He underwent successful heart surgery in a U.S. hospital in January 2007.
    Following the collapse of Prodi's government in January 2008, Berlusconi outmanoeuvred his rivals on the left and secured allies on the right to win a landslide victory in April 2008 elections, giving him his strongest ever mandate.
    Berlusconi's third term has been marked with diplomatic gaffes, sex scandals and controversial comments.
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel was kept waiting to greet Berlusconi as he continued a mobile phone conversation after arriving for a NATO summit in April 2009. Berlusconi insisted he had been trying to convince his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan to accept the European candidate for the post of NATO Secretary General.
    Days later, while touring a camp set up for survivors in the earthquake-devastated town of L'Aquila, he implied their ordeal was "like a weekend of camping".
    In a surprise decision, Berlusconi switched the venue for the annual G8 summit in July from Sardinia to L'Aquila to draw attention to the plight of victims and to pump more funds into the region.
    The summit briefly took the spotlight off his personal affairs. Berlusconi's second wife Veronica Lario wrote to a newspaper in February 2007 demanding a public apology from him for flirting with young starlets at a party.
    In May, Lario announced to several newspapers that she wanted a divorce, accusing Berlusconi of having an inappropriate relationship with 17-year-old aspiring model Noemi Letizia and describing his party's choice of female candidates for the European elections as a "shamelessly trashy" process.
    Berlusconi's approval ratings fell with revelations that prostitutes were paid to attend parties at his homes and allegations that call-girl Patrizia D'Addario was paid to sleep with him in his Rome residence.
    The gaffe-prone Prime Minister attracted further criticism after repeating remarks referring to U.S. President Barack Obama as tanned. Addressing a political party gathering in September 2009 he told cheering supporters "I have to bring you some greetings, greetings from a man, what is his name, just a minute, it was someone with a tan, Barack Obama".
    In October 2009, Italy's Constitutional Court ruled that a law granting him immunity from prosecution while he is in office violates the constitution, opening the way for a resumption of corruption trials against him.
    Speaking at his first news conference following the ruling Berlusconi maintained he was being persecuted. "In absolute terms, I am the most legally persecuted man of all times, in the whole history of mankind, worldwide, because I have been subjected to more than 2,500 court hearings" he said.
    Following an ugly assault on the prime minister in December 2009, he was admitted to hospital with broken teeth, a fractured nose and bleeding face. A man with a history of mental illness threw a souvenir of Milan cathedral at him as he signed autographs after a political rally. Berlusconi spent four nights in hospital before being discharged.
    Simmering tensions between Berlusconi and his top coalition partner Gianfranco Fini exploded dramatically in April 2010. During a party conference for the Party of Freedom (PDL) they jointly founded in 2008, Berlusconi and Fini took part in a public shouting match after Fini had accused Berlusconi of running the PDL like a monarch and stifling internal debate. Months of acrimonious exchanges followed until Berlusconi finally split with his one-time ally at the end of July 2010.
    Two months later Berlusconi's government survived a confidence vote thanks to the support of his Northern League allies led by Umberto Bossi.
    At the end of October Berlusconi was again at the centre of a scandal, this time involving an 18-year-old Moroccan runaway named Karima El-Maharoub, also known as Ruby The Heartbreaker. The case filled newspapers for days and prompted opposition calls for the premier to resign following media reports that Berlusconi had phoned a Milan police station to ask that El-Maharoub be released after she was detained for petty theft.
    Berlusconi has shrugged off the storm of criticism over the incident, even stoking the outrage with his trademark brand of provocation by remarking "it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay".
    But the list of scandals and lurid revelations have attracted wide condemnation including criticism from the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Benedict made a thinly veiled reference to the scandals speaking of the need for the rediscovery of moral principles in society.
    In recent months opposition to Berlusconi has been crystallised by his government's erratic handling of the euro zone debt crisis. With the government consumed by policy disputes, internal squabbles and manoeuvring by party rebels, measures to reverse a decade of slow growth have repeatedly been delayed.
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