"L'Amore Vince Sempre Sull'Invidia E Sull'Odio"-PdL Rally

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www.forzasilvio.it

MANIFESTAZIONE DI PIAZZA SAN GIOVANNI:

"L'amore vince sempre sull'invidia e sull'odio": questo è il titolo della manifestazione di sabato 20 marzo 2010 a Roma, in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano.

Il presidente Berlusconi e i 13 candidati presidente di Regione sottoscriveranno davanti alle persone in piazza e a tutti gli italiani il "Patto per le Regioni", una serie di impegni di programma comuni a tutti i nostri candidati governatori, alla vigilia delle elezioni del 28 e 29 marzo.

Il Patto prevede impegni come la realizzazione immediata del Piano casa previsto dal Governo nazionale, meno burocrazia per le imprese, con la possibilità di aprire una impresa in un solo giorno, la realizzazione di più piste ciclabili e di aree verdi, la lotta all’inquinamento, la progressiva riduzione dei tempi di attesa per gli esami clinici e altro ancora.

L’obiettivo della manifestazione è quello di comunicare a tutti gli italiani il nostro intento di portare la moralità del fare anche nel governi regionali attualmente in mano alla sinistra, come dice lo slogan: dal Governo del fare alle Regioni del fare.

Il programma della manifestazione prevede la partenza alle 15.00 di due cortei, rispettivamente dal Circo Massimo e da Largo dei Colli Albani, che confluiranno intorno alle 17.00 in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, dove avrà luogo l’intervento di Silvio Berlusconi. La conclusione della manifestazione è prevista entro le ore 19.00.

New Italian PDL Female Candidates

Nicole Minetti's possible candidacy:

The Italian prime minister has spent weeks denying reports that his party would stack its list of candidates with attractive young models or actresses.

But the 73-year-old premier was apparently unable to resist the charms of Nicole Minetti, a showgirl turned dental hygienist who he met when his teeth were being repaired after he was attacked by a man with a history of mental illness in Milan in December.

Despite the furore and the wrath of his wife caused by his attempts last year to promote a string of glamorous women as candidates for the European elections, Miss Minetti is reportedly now on a short list to run as a candidate for Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party in Lombardy, northern Italy.

A former dancer who has appeared on various TV variety shows, she graduated as a dental hygienist last November and within weeks was tending to the prime minister when he was treated in Milan's San Raffaele Hospital for two broken teeth and a smashed nose following the assault on Dec 13.

Hers will not be the only pretty face in the ranks of Mr Berlusconi's party as it seeks to consolidate its hold on power in the elections in 13 of Italy's 20 regions at the end of March.

Graziana Capone, a law graduate and model who has been dubbed "the Angelina Jolie of Puglia," the southern region from which she hails, was recently hired to help mould Mr Berlusconi's image on television, La Repubblica reported. She had also been touted as a possible candidate in the elections.

A smiling Mr Berlusconi was photographed this week as he presented four women who hope to be elected as regional governors, two of whom have cover girl looks: Monica Faenzi and Anna Maria Bernini.

His penchant for favouring brains over beauty earned him exasperated criticism from the main opposition party.

"Berlusconi chooses candidates more for their good looks than for their experience," said Anna Finocchiaro, the Senate leader of the Democratic Party. "He's filled parliament with beautiful girls, albeit competent, but they don't count for anything within the party."

But loyalists within the ranks of his party angrily hit back. Margherita Boniver, an MP, told Corriere della Sera: "I'm astonished. You only have to look at the CVs of our candidates to understand that they are people who are dedicated to politics," said Barbara Saltamartini, an MP who has responsibility for equal opportunities within the PDL, said that Miss Finocchiaro's remarks had shown "that she is an enemy of women".

The glamorous line-up invited comparisons with the row which broke out last year when Mr Berlusconi's party proposed fielding a bevy of actresses, models and reality television starlets as candidates for the European parliament elections in June.

His wife, Veronica Lario, branded the plan "shamelessly tacky" and a week later demanded a divorce after nearly 30 years of marriage.

In the end most of the women were ditched from the line-up and only one, Barbara Matera, 27, a television presenter, actress and former Miss Italy contender, was elected to Brussels.

She revealed that her role model was Mara Carfagna, the former men's magazine model who Mr Berlusconi made his equal opportunities minister when he returned to power in 2008.

Last week Mr Berlusconi caused another furore after joking that while Italy had succeeded in staunching the flow of Albanian illegal immigrants crossing the Adriatic, he would be prepared to make an exception for "beautiful girls".

Pictures courtesy of UK Telegraph

Socialist Coward Tartaglia Caused Permanent Damage to Il Cavaliere

UPDATE 1: See Michael Ledeen analysis of PM Berlusconi here. (H/T Vince Mariano)

(ANSA) - Rome, February 9 - Premier Silvio Berlusconi suffered permanent physical harm in the attack last December by a mentally unstable man who hit him in the face with a metal statuette after a Milan political rally, medical examiners said Tuesday.

In their report, which may have bearing on the charges facing his attacker, the court-appointed doctors said the premier's broken nose and two chipped teeth had ''permanently impaired his ability to chew''.

Despite returning to work in high spirits less than a month after the attack, Berlusconi required a tooth implant and cosmetic surgery for his facial injuries.

While they established the lasting harm inflicted in the attack, the court doctors also shortened the legal length of Berlusconi's convalescence from the 90 days first indicated by his personal physician Alberto Zangrillo to 20-40 days.

Chief practitioner at San Raffaele hospital in Milan where Berlusconi was first treated for his wounds, Zangrillo said that the examiners' report ''wasn't official'' and didn't necessarily override his prognosis.

Observers on Tuesday remained divided on what, if any, ramifications the examiners' report could have on the charges facing Massimo Tartaglia, 42, the man awaiting trial for Berlusconi's attack.

Some reports in the Italian media predict that reducing the length of Berlusconi's legal convalescence will mean a simple assault charge for Tartaglia, who would face no more than three years in jail. But Berlusconi's attorney, Niccolo' Ghedini, argued that by acknowledging the permanent nature of Berlusconi's injuries, the report supported a charge of aggravated assault with a prison term up to seven years long.

Tartaglia was moved to a mental health community on Monday at the behest of his lawyers, who said their client was mentally unstable and in ''urgent'' need of therapy.

His defence team is expected to ask for a commuted sentence in a mental healthcare facility should he be convicted.

Berlusconi says he has "forgiven Tartaglia", but legal sources say that his crime cannot be compared to a prior attack six years ago by a man who threw a tripod at him, which the premier was also quick to pardon.

They say that Tartaglia, by contrast, will have to answer for his actions which caused considerable harm to a state official, unlike the tripod attack.

Berlusconi Becomes Emotional During Tribute To Hero Mother

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wipes a tear during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuís speech (Photo: AP)

UK Telegraph:

Silvio Berlusconi was reduced to tears when Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the Italian prime minister's mother for saving a Jewish child from arrest and deportation.

Mr Berlusconi, who was visiting Jerusalem appeared to wipe away tears when the Israeli leader recalled how Rosa Berlusconi, who died in 2008 at the age of 97, saw a German policeman trying to arrest a Jewish girl on a train in Milan.

"The Italian woman, who was then eight months pregnant, stood between the policeman and the girl. And without a grain of fear, she confronted the German policeman and said to him: 'You can kill me, but look at the faces of the people on the train, I promise you they won't let you get out alive'," Mr Netanyahu said.

"With this firm statement, the Italian woman saved the Jewish girl and lit, if only for a moment, a ray of humanistic light and bravery in the great darkness that pervaded all of Europe.

"That brave woman was named Rosa, and one of her sons is named Silvio Berlusconi, today the prime minister of Italy."

Mr Berlusconi, 73, was on a visit to Israel's parliament and listened to a translation of the speech, which was in Hebrew.

He wiped his hand across his eye and nodded in appreciation as Mr Netanyahu and Israeli MPs applauded.

"I am moved and thank the prime minister for recalling an episode involving my mother, who in that moment expressed the feelings of all Italian women," he said.

In true Italian style, Mr Berlusconi idolised his mother and devoted a chapter to her in a biography of his life that he sent to every Italian household while campaigning for re-election in 2001.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (L) toasts with Israel's President Shimon Peres during a lunch on Berlusconi's behalf at the president's residence in Jerusalem February 3, 2010. Berlusconi, visiting Israel's parliament on Wednesday, appeared to wipe away a tear when Netanyahu recalled how the Italian leader's mother helped a Jewish girl during World War Two. (Daylife-Reuters)

Pictures courtesy of Daylife







Video H/T: Panorama Magazine

Emotional Berlusconi Speaks To Israeli Knessset

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (3rd R) walks past an honour guard as he is escorted by Israel's Speaker of the Parliament Reuven Rivlin (R) during a welcoming ceremony at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem February 3, 2010. Berlusconi was visibly moved in Israel's parliament on Wednesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled how the Italian leader's mother helped a Jewish girl during World War Two. (Daylife-Reuters)
Pictures courtesy of Daylife

Ansa:

Jerusalem, February 3 - Israeli's right to exist and the threat posed to the Jewish state by Iran's nuclear ambitions were among the key points of an address Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made to the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.

He also spoke on the need to combat both anti-Semitism and racism, recalled the horror of the Holocaust and reiterated Italy's position in favor of a Palestinian state existing in peace alongside Israel Berlusconi was the first Italian premier to address the Knesset, although the leader of the centrist UDC party, Pier Ferdinando Casini, spoke to the assembly in 2008 on Holocaust Remembrance Day in his role of chairman of the Interparliamentary Union.

Speaking to the assembly, Berlusconi said "you represent ideals which are universal, you are the greatest example of democracy and freedom in the Middle East if not the only one. An example which has deep roots in the Bible and the Zionist ideal".

"Israel, your state is truly the symbol of this possibility of being free and living in a democracy outside the borders of the West and for this reason you are seen as an intolerable presence by fanatics all over the world," he added.

"Israel's security within its borders and its right to exist as a Jewish state are for us an ethical choice and a moral imperative against all forms of anti-Semitism and negation and against losing the memory of the Holocaust," Berlusconi.

In regard to Iran, Berlusconi said it was "unacceptable that atomic weapons be in possession of a state whose leader openly expresses his desire to destroy Israel and denies not only the Holocaust but also the legitimacy of the Jewish state".

In his address, which was interrupted 12 times by standing ovations, the premier reiterated his 'dream' of seeing Israel join the European Union, even though it is not part of Europe.

"Israel's place must be among the nations of Europe, as a full member of the European Union. This is my dream, this is my hope," he said, Israel qualified to be part of the EU, the premier explained, because "your nation is a true democracy, an open society which is proud of its liberty, a free and democratic state in every way and in every way equal to the democracies in Europe".

Turning his attention to the Holocaust, Berlusconi told the MPs "I truly feel that I am one of you. I knew I was one of you the day I visited Auschwitz, a day which changed my life".

Looking back to anti-Semitic 'racial laws' adopted under Fascism, Berlusconi said that thanks to the Liberation Italy "found the strength to repudiate the infamous racial laws which had shamed our country since 1938 and contradicted centuries of respect for all human being an their dignity".

The premier then looked at today and recalled that after 9/11 "we Italians knew right away that the challenge posed by terrorism was not just against the United States and Israel but against all democratic nations in the West and against moderate Arab countries".

"And since then we have done our part, from Iraq to Afghanistan, Bosnia to Lebanon, to combat terrorism and foster peace," he added.

"We are united in defending democracy and keeping it free from fanaticism, prejudice, superstition and those who exploit the name of God to justify violence," the premier said.

On the prospects for peace in the Middle East, Berlusconi recalled how Rome "has always been in favor of a solution which foresees two states, a Jewish one and a Palestinian one, which exist side by side in peace and security".

"Today, this solution of two states for two peoples appears to be acceptable not only to you and the Palestinian leadership, but also the European Union, the United States and the most important countries in the Arab world," he added.

"And I have to praise Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu for the courage he has shown to follow, explaining to me the interests of his people, this path," the premier said.

Berlusconi also said that Israel was justified in launching its three-week offensive in Gaza, between the end of 2008 and start of 2009, in retaliation to missile launchings by the Hamas militant group.

Italy, he told the Knesset, opposed the UN's Golstone Report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, because Israel's response was "justified".

In his introduction to Berlusconi's address, Netanyahu recalled how the premier's recently deceased mother, Rosa, had during the war saved a Jewish girl from a German policeman.

A visibly moved Berlusconi thanked the Israel prime minister for remembering his mother.

Speaking to the assembly after the premier's address, Netanyahu said "here in Israel you have won our hearts and in the name of everyone I wish to tell you how you have our esteem, we embrace and love you".

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack said Berlusconi's address was "stupendous, moving and real, while opposition leader Tzipi Livni said she was moved by the premier's words.

"While other leaders hold back, Berlusconi always has the courage to say what he thinks. For him it's not a question of politics but values. He knows what is right and what is wrong, whether it's anti-Semitism, the Iranian threat or combating terrorism, she added.

Others leaders who have addressed the Knesset include ex-US president George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

As can be expected the Iranian regime responded by stating that the Italian leader had engaged in "blatant interference in the internal affairs of an independent country."

See Berlusconi's remarks with President Abbas today here.

MP Michaela Biancofiore Celebrates Birthday With Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi recovers from attack in glamorous company:

Silvio Berlusconi proved he was on the mend after his attack by inviting a glamorous young Italian MP to a birthday celebration.

He has barely left hospital for injuries sustained in an assault in Milan last month. But the Italian prime minister, who bears scars to his face from the Dec 13 attack, was photographed beaming as he sat next to Michaela Biancofiore, a member of his People of Freedom party.

He invited her to his villa at Arcore outside Milan, where he is recuperating after a man with a history of mental illness smashed a souvenir of the city's Gothic cathedral into his face, leaving him with a fractured nose, two broken teeth and cuts to his lip.

The pair celebrated Miss Biancofiore's 39th birthday with a cake on which a cartoon crafted from icing depicted the young MP with out-sized breasts and a low-cut blouse and the prime minister with his arms around her, sticking his middle finger up in the air.

The caricature was a reference to a rally which Mr Berlusconi attended with the young MP in Bolzano, northern Italy, in 2005, in which he told jokes to supporters and raised his finger in apparent defiance of his political enemies.

"When he saw the cake, he laughed a lot, but it stretched the stitches on his face and that made him recall the attack," said Miss Biancofiore, who is a senior member of the prime minister's governing coalition in the northern region of Trentino Alto Adige.

She said that while she was afraid that the encounter might be subject to "gossip and slander", nothing improper had happened between her and the prime minister and that they were not alone during the birthday celebrations at his residence, Villa San Martino.

Mr Berlusconi had been "generous and kind as usual", she told the newspaper Corriere della Sera, adding she had ordered the cake herself.

Mr Berlusconi, 73, is being divorced by his wife of 20 years, Veronica Lario, 53, after a string of episodes involving starlets and showgirls.

He underwent a medical check-up at the weekend, with doctors saying he was making a satisfactory recovery.

His personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said the billionaire premier had respected medical advice not to engage in any public activity, including cabinet meetings, for two weeks after the attack.

He is expected to return to public engagements at the end of this week.

A similar news report can be found here.

Read more about member of the Italian parliament, Biancofiore, here and here.

See older, relevant pics:

Pope at UN FAO Summit

Pictures courtesy of Daylife

MEP Barbara Matera

Silvio Foreover

Berlusconi Exposes Insidious Cabal

Most Italians "want to be like me." Il Cavalieri

Berlusconi discusses state-church relations:

(ANSA) - Rome, September 7 - Relations between the Italian government and the Catholic Church are ''excellent,'' Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday, denying reports of tensions after a Church paper editor who criticised the premier quit alleging a smear campaign by a Berlusconi family daily.

The premier also repeated charges there was a defamatory campaign about his private and political life and claimed most Italians identified with him. Speaking on one of his three TV networks, Berlusconi described reported tensions with the Church over last week's resignation of Dino Boffo, editor of the Italian bishops daily Avvenire, as ''a lie''.

Berlusconi also denied that he had ever planned to see Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on the day Berlusconi family daily Il Giornale reported Boffo had paid a harassment fine to a woman with whose husband Boffo allegedly had a relationship.

''I never asked for meetings with Bertone,'' the premier said.

Berlusconi was due to attend a traditional Catholic forgiveness ceremony on August 28, the day Il Giornale broke its story on Boffo, accusing the Avvenire editor of double standards in criticising the premier's private life.

His attendance was cancelled hours after Il Giornale hit the press, with a Vatican announcement later confirmed by the premier's office.

Several sources said he would meet Bertone, the Holy See's highest official, after the ceremony in what some observers saw as a bid to calm Catholic worries over allegations on the premier's friendship with a teenage girl and an escort who claimed to have slept with him.

But Berlusconi stressed Monday that relations with the Church had ''always been excellent,'' ruling out the need to see Bertone, then or now.

These ties would be ''consolidated,'' he said, over the coming months with the government continuing to back pro-life moves like a restrictive living will currently going through parliament, sparked by the case of a young woman who was dubbed by some ''Italy's Terri Schiavo''.

Eluana Englaro's case split Italy for years until her death earlier this year, with some churchmen and Catholic politicians claiming she had been murdered.

Englaro, 38, died after 17 years in a permanent vegetative state since a 1992 car crash despite last-minute government efforts to save her with the new legislation.

Her feeding tube was removed according to what her father said were her wishes, a claim pro-life campaigners contested.

Berlusconi told the TV show Monday: ''The defence our government made of certain basic principles...which underpin Catholic doctrine, principles like the defence of human life and the defence of the family, demonstrate the excellence of the relations between the government and the Church''.

Leftwing critics have suggested the premier would step up his government's pursuit of a pro-life agenda to dampen Catholic concerns about his private life.

Critics have claimed the centre-right majority will also fight the recent approval of the so-called 'abortion pill'.

In mid-August Boffo, the Avvenire editor who resigned last week, accused the premier of an ''arrogant'' departure from ''a sober lifestyle''.

A weekend poll in Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera indicated the premier's popularity among practising Catholics had dropped only 5% from 55% to 50% since the case of aspiring showgirl Noemi Letizia, 18, erupted when the premier's wife Veronia Lario sued for divorce claiming Berlusconi ''frequented minors''.

Berlusconi on Monday said he had his own polls showing a 70% popularity rate for his government among all Italians, about 40% of whom, according to the Corriere poll, could be defined as practising Catholics.

Berlusconi critics claim many Italians are ill-informed about the allegations against the premier because of spotty TV coverage.

As well as controlling his three Mediaset commercial stations, the premier has influence over the three-channel RAI public TV corporation.

The premier claims never to have interfered with their working but two top journalists were blackballed a few years ago after criticism from the premier.

There has also been controversy after an anti-Berlusconi comedienne's show was pulled and, more recently, when both RAI and Mediaset declined to run trailers for a documentary, which premiered at Venice and opened at No.4 in the weekend box-office charts, accusing the premier of creating an alleged 'videocracy' in Italy.

Italian journalists are staging a demonstration in defence of press freedom on September 19 after Berlusconi sued two leftwing dailies, La Repubblica and l'Unita', which have led campaigns on the sex allegations and the premier's alleged promises, first cited by his wife and later attributed to Letizia, to help showgirls enter politics.

On Monday Berlusconi levelled a fresh broadside against the press, claiming there had been a ''ferocious campaign'' against him and alleging that ''90% of newspapers'' were controlled by Communists and progressive Catholics whose ''Poor Italy'', he repeated, claiming the press was trying to install ''a police state'' and that he had been forced to defend himself.

He described protests against his libel suits as ''a joke''.

''Most Italians would like to be like me and they support my behaviour,'' said the premier.

Observers have suggested many Italians identify with the 72-year-old premier's flamboyant lifestyle and his admission that he is ''no saint''.

The premier has admitted sleeping with escort Patrizia d'Addario but said he didn't know she was a prostitute.

On Monday, Berlusconi claimed most Italians weren't interested in his private life but in the performance of his government and his political integrity.

He repeated a longstanding claim that, as Italy's long-richest and now second-richest man, he was in no danger of falling victim to graft.

''(They know) Silvio Berlusconi doesn't steal,'' he said.

The premier, who has been accused of a conflict of interest and allegedly overseeing laws in favour of himself and his media empire, stressed that ''Italians know Silvio Berlusconi is not stealing and is not using his powers for his personal advantage,'' unlike ''almost all'' his predecessors, ''especially'' on the centre-left.

He also reiterated a charge that the left-wing opposition was allegedly in league with a politically motivated judiciary which has succeeded in bringing him to trial several times but never securing a definitive sentence.

The premier has been convicted in a handful of graft trials but has either been acquitted on appeal or seen charges dropped because of the statute of limitations on fraud, shortened by one of his governments.

A remaining trial has been suspended because of a new law shielding the state's four highest officials from persecution while in office.

The Constitutional Court is set to rule this autumn on the law, which critics claim breaks the constitution's provision for equality before the law.

On Monday's show, Berlusconi accused his opponents of seeking to set up ''a judicial and police state'' from which he said he was protecting his supporters.

The premier accused his rivals of waging a ''subversive campaign'' to bring him down, claimed he had been ''forced'' to issue libel suits to defend his reputation against newspaper reports on his private life.

''Italian aren't stupid, as the Left thinks, and they prefer my government,'' he said, citing in-house polls showing the government's approval rating ''sailing towards 70%''. Despite his influence over most of Italian TV, the premier noted that most Italian newspapers - ''90% in his view - were controlled by ''a Catholic and Catholic-Communist'' minority, terms conservatives sometimes use to describe the main opposition Democratic Party formed by former Communists and mostly liberal Catholics.

Rejecting notions that the alleged scandal had been poorly covered by Italian TV, Berlusconi said: ''I repeat with force, with this news set-up, poor old Italy''.

Update 1:

New bills will lead to an improvement of church-state relations in Italy.

Lo Diro Come

The UK Telegraph rhetorically asks 'How Does He Do It'?:

To most of us it seems extraordinary that Silvio Berlusconi is still prime minister of Italy. There can't be many politicians who could survive the sort of scandals he's been through: accusations of perjury, perverting the course of justice, proximity to the Mafia, accusations of membership of a sinister masonic lodge, of tax evasion and of corrupting public officials. And now, on top of all that, it has been discovered that he's been enjoying Dionysian parties with dozens of young girls at both of his Sardinian and Roman villas.

This time he doesn't even deny the central allegations. Not surprisingly, perhaps, since there's overwhelming evidence of what went on: there are photographs of topless girls in G-strings lounging around his villa, there are wiretaps of businessmen lining up escort girls for Silvio's parties. One escort has revealed she was given only half her "appearance fee" because she didn't stay the night (she didn't make that mistake again). The question isn't did he or didn't he, but simply: how on earth does he get away with it? How is it that a country we think of as a close neighbour, which we all think we know so well, has such a different morality to ours?

There's also the fact that some Italians have a slightly different attitude towards fidelity. It may be because Catholicism is so voluptuous and forgiving compared with our austere puritanism; or else because the women, and men, seem so irresistibly attractive; or maybe it's because so many television shows have men of retirement age surrounded by showgirls in bikinis ... Whatever the reason, there's little outrage about an old, married man flirting with teenage wenches.

If anything there's envy of, and admiration for, his harem.

It's telling that Berlusconi's line of defence last week wasn't Bill Clinton's outright denial: "I did not have sex with that woman." Instead, using a defence that would only work in a country where the male conqueror is more admired than the faithful husband, he simply said he hadn't paid for the sex because that would detract from the thrill of the conquest.

If anything, Berlusconi's libidinous exploits appear to enable the electorate to identify with him more closely. They make him appear a man of the people. Before Berlusconi's entry into Italian politics, the country's parliament was largely dominated by elderly grey men who were measured and refined, but also distant, aloof and superior. Berlusconi, by contrast, has always presented himself as a uomo qualunque, an Ordinary Joe.

People seem to admire him for his refusal to watch his step, for the fact that he can never be anything other than a bull in a china shop. We foreigners find his show-boating and back-slapping and gestures and jokes rather cringey, but in Italy they all make him seem somehow normal, part not of a snooty elite but of the people, part of the sacred popolo. He is, says the propaganda, a man just like you, a simple man who loves money and sex.

And it's cunning, of course, for which Berlusconi is truly admired. Being furbo – cunning or sly – isn't a slur in Italy; it's a sign that you can outsmart the rest, that you're clever enough to get away with it. Every time Berlusconi survives a scandal, his stock rises yet higher because people are in awe of how he does it. He's like Houdini, calmly shrugging off the shackles that magistrates and journalists and opposition politicians keep trying to put him in. (Read entire article)

Wouldn't you just love to know what Berlusconi and Carla Bruni's husband are talking about??? I have a pretty good idea!

Barbara Matera-Italian MEP from PdL

Barbara Matera, 28, science graduate and the only succesful one of the original four showgirl candidates to be put forward as MEP. But she is better known for her appearance in Miss Italia and her TV career where she has appeared as an announcer and in several soaps (UK Telegraph-GETTY-EPA)

Barbara Matera - Annunciatrice Rai Uno 11-04-2007

Links:

Il Popolo della Liberta website

Berlusconi Remains Resilient

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's "women" as per the UK Telegraph.

Well, notwithstanding the publications of saucy photos and an attempt by the Left to demonize his personal behavior, Berlusconi's party came up strong in the EU elections.

Via UK Telegraph:

A poll commissioned by La Repubblica newspaper gave the billionaire businessman's People of Freedom Party between 39 and 43 per cent of the vote and the left-wing opposition between 27 and 31 per cent of the vote. It showed that the anti-immigration, Right-wing Northern League, an ally of Mr Berlusconi's party, attracted between 6.5 and 10.5 per cent of the vote The results, collated by polling agency IPR marketing, were preliminary, appearing within minutes of voting coming to an end late on Sunday night.

They were based on a poll of 5,000 people carried out as Italians cast their votes.

In the past, however, exit polls and early projections have turned out to be highly unreliable in Italy, in part because some voters are reluctant to admit that they have voted for Right-wing parties.

But if proved to be accurate, the results appeared to chime with trends across Europe, in which centre-Right parties looked set for victories while centre-Left parties such as Britain's Labour were punished at the polls.

While Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party appeared to have fared well, a vote of 39-43 per cent is far lower than the 70 per cent approval rating that he often claims for himself.

Nor could the projected vote be interpreted as a heavy defeat for the opposition - the Democratic Party was hoping to win at least 27 per cent of the vote, so anything over that would be seen as a bonus.

If confirmed, the government's share of the vote would be similar to the 37.4 per cent that Mr Berlusconi's party won in the lower house of parliament in last year's general election, which propelled him to a third stint as prime minister. His party had hoped to win at least 40 per cent of the European election vote, in the first test of its popularity since being elected to government last year.

Mr Berlusconi, 72, accused the opposition Democratic Party of collaborating with Italy's "Leftist" press to embarrass him by leaking details of his divorce and his friendship with Noemi Letizia, whose 18th birthday party he recently attended.

"The electoral results will represent a terrible defeat for this Left, which has substituted an electoral programme - which it doesn't have - for calumny," he said last week.

While pollsters predict a lurch to the right in many countries across European, Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party, which recently merged with a party founded by the political heirs of Benito Mussolini, is already firmly in occupation of the centre-Right end of the political spectrum.

Since being elected for a third time as prime minister last year, he has announced a crackdown on law and order, putting armed troops on the streets, making illegal immigration a crime, ordering a census of the Roma gypsy population and pushing boat loads of immigrants back to Libya without letting them land on Italian soil.

Italy, with a population of 58 million, sends 72 MEPs to Brussels.

Detailed election results here.

UPDATE 1:

Ansa.It:

(ANSA) - Rome, June 8 - Center-right parties came out ahead in this weekend's European elections in Italy as in the most of the European Union in a vote marked by absenteeism and concern over the economic crisis.

Although voter turnout was a record low for Italy it was still one of the best in the EU with two out of three, 66.5%, Italians going to the polls, down 6.4% percentage points from 2004.

In the EU as a whole, just over 43% voted.

In Italy, Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservative People of Freedom (PdL) failed to make the gains it sought and even lost ground compared to last spring's general elections.

With almost all votes counted, the PdL won 35.23% of the vote which was an improvement over the 32.4% won by its two main components - Forza Italia and the National Alliance - in the last European elections but below the 37.4% of the vote which brought it to power last year and much less than Berlusconi's optimistic prediction of 45%.

The PdL's main ally, the North League, was perhaps the big winner at the weekend breaking the 10% threshold to achieve its best result ever of some 10.21 %, compared to 5% five years ago and 8.3% in the 2008 general elections.

On the opposition, the Democratic Party (PD) raked in about 26.14% of the vote, compared to 31.1% in 2004, when it was part of the Olive Tree alliance, and 33.2% last year.

The Italy of Values party of ex-Clean Hands prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro was another big winner and collected 8% of the vote compared to 2.1% in 2004 and 4.4% in 2008.

The Union of Center (UDC) party of former House speaker Pier Ferdinando Casini won 6.51% of the vote, an improvement over 5.9% in 2004 and 5.6% last year.

All other parties, including those on the far Left and Right, failed to break the 4% threshold on a national level.

Both the PdL and the PD blamed their lower-than-expected results on absenteeism.

Commentary:

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, as I have noted before, the brouhaha over Berlusconi's private life is an orchestrated effort to bring about the downfall of a right wing, pro-Israeli, Euro sceptic government led by the most charismatic leader on the European continent...

Leave Silvio Alone

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) and Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo present the new Piaggio Mp3 Hybrid scooter at Chigi palace in Rome May 28, 2009. (Daylife-Reuters)

Sky News cites the latest developments in the Berlusconi photo brouhaha:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has shrugged off a series of photographs of naked women taken at his villa as "nothing scandalous".

The series of snaps was published on a Spanish website and pictured several bare bottom and naked women by a jacuzzi.

Other shots showed Mr Berlusconi walking in front of a woman along a path on the estate.

The Italian leader has applied to the Italian Privacy Commission to have the 700 photographs taken by snapper Antonello Zappadu seized.

He claims they were a ''breach of his privacy".

However, the pictures had already been sold to El Pais through an international agency.

News of the photos emerged while Mr Berlusconi took part in a radio phone-in.

He said: "I am not at all frightened. There is nothing scandalous in these pictures but this is a violation of my privacy and an scandalous aggression.

"The photographs show people having a jacuzzi by a private villa they were staying in while my guests."

Mr Berlusconi rejected any suggestion that the ongoing controversy could affect relations with the Catholic Church.

"If there is a government close to the Church then it is this one, in fact the Vatican has said that relations between this government and the Holy See are are the best ever," he said.

Among other photos posted on the El Pais website - and quickly seen on Italian sites - was a photo of a naked man believed to be a former Czech Prime Minister.

Mirek Topolanek had been staying at Mr Berlusconi's Villa Certosa estate near Oblige on the Italian island of Sardinia.

The perma-tanned media tycoon said: "I received a delegation from the Czech Republic and it is not possible that a person a kilometre away took photographs inside a house.

"Privacy must be respected at all times especially in the presence of illustrious guests."

When asked about the photographs of the naked women, Mr Berlusconi hit back and said: ''Do you take a shower fully clothed?

"They are having a jacuzzi in a private house and they are victims of a scandalous aggression.''

Previous guests at Mr Berlusconi's Villa Certosa have included 18-year-old Noemi Letizia, whose birthday party he attended two months ago.

The Italian leader reportedly gave her a £6,000 gold and diamond necklace.

has since emerged that Noemi was under age when she attended a New Year's Eve 2008 party at the villa and Mr Berlusconi has come under pressure to explain the relationship.

He has denied anything "spicy".

However, his wife Veronica Lario, 52, announced last month that she was divorcing him because she was ''fed up of him associating with minors,'' adding that he was ''not well.''

Mr Berlusconi is also facing a probe over a possible abuse of power, after it emerged that private guests were flown on official state planes to Sardinia for personal business.

He has dismissed any wrong doing saying ''all the rules were followed'' and despite the controversy he is confident of victory in the European elections.

To view the photos click here.

If you want to read accompanying stories from the El Pais "newspaper" you can do so here, here and here. (background stories are in Spanish)

Commentary:

A couple of points regarding this engendered "scandal".

First they tried this .

Now, there is a fallout & rift between Sky News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, and Berlusconi. Hence the salacious nature of their reporting.

As for the photos, specifically, which can viewed in the above link, they are frankly garden variety in nature.

One has a girl in a thong and the other topless, Heaven forbid, and the other has a man, not Belusconi, naked with his penis out but not engaging in sexual conduct.

Others, like Berlusconi, in the photos are dressed normally and there is no indication of anything untoward or amiss occurring.

For the record this is his private villa on the island of Sardinia and anyone who has a clue about European culture and society would know that this is very common, particularly in the countries with a Mediterranean coastline.

I have seen more skin and worse conduct on South Beach!!!

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, this is an orchestrated effort to bring about the downfall of a right wing, pro-Israeli, Euro sceptic government led by the most charismatic leader on the European continent...

Belusconi's Female Woes

Via Sky News:

Silvio Berlusconi's ties with 18-year-old Noemi Letizia have already ended his own marriage.

The PM reportedly gave her a €6,000 (£5,300) gold and diamond necklace at her birthday party a month ago.

His wife Veronica Lario, 52, then announced she was leaving him because he "spends too much time with minors" and because he is "not well".

Pressure is mounting on Mr Berlusconi after Noemi's former boyfriend, Gino Flaminio, claimed he caused the pair to split.

The ex-partner alleged they had ended their relationship because she was spending too much time with the media tycoon-turned-politician.

In an interview with La Repubblica, Gino contradicted Mr Berlusconi's claims that he had always met Noemi through her parents.

The ex-boyfriend also said she had spent last New Year at the Prime Minister's Sardinian villa.

La Repubblica has printed a list of 10 questions calling on Mr Berlusconi to explain his relationship with Noemi every day for the past 10 days - but he has refused.

In his interview, Gino claimed Mr Berlusconi called Noemi after TV friend Emilio Fede had inadvertently forgotten her photographic book of modelling shots at his house.

Gino, 22, claimed he had listened in to phones calls by the PM to Noemi.

He said Mr Berlusconi "had a fatherly attitude when he was speaking to her and I didn't like it".

"I told her I didn't like it. She is a sweet and innocent girl who can't bear being apart from her teddy bear," Gino went on.

The young man said he and Noemi broke up after the model told him she was going to Mr Berlusconi's villa on the island of Sardinia for New Year.

He said: "When she came back, she told me there were around 30 girls there.

"There was a lot of strange things going on - I called her friend Roberta who was with her but she kept telling me Noemi was busy and couldn't talk."

Before the claims, Mr Berlusconi had said that he was "considering" speaking to Parliament about the relationship.

He added that "a lot of people should be ashamed of what they have said and written".

Pictures courtesy of Sky News

My take is that this is but another attempt to discredit or bring down a right-wing, pro-American government in Europe.

We have already seen how scurrilous accusations against PM Berlusconi always turn out to be false, as the radical Left and their cohorts have been engaged in this campaign against him since the '90's.

He has always had a predilection for younger, attractive women, hence is estranged wife who is 20 years his junior, so big deal?

I declare Leave Silvio Alone!!!

UPDATE 1:

BBC, has typical, as a highly inflammatory & jaundiced story regarding the Italian PM and this matter.

He's backkkkk

The Berlusconi-led conservative coalition won 340 of the 617 seats in the lower house. "The months ahead will be difficult and I am preparing a government ready to last five years."

Berlusconi has won his third Italian election with a bigger than expected swing to the centre right, but the media magnate said it would not be easy to solve deep economic problems.

With counting nearly over, results gave Berlusconi a 101-seat majority in the 630-member lower house and an advantage of 41 seats in the Senate, which has 315 elected and seven lifetime senators. (France 24 International News)

Buona fortuna il nostro amico

Today the people of the great nation of Italy go to the polls, in order to determine their new political future.

God willing, our friend & stalwart ally will, once again, return the reigns of power in Rome.

Berlusconi, a flamboyant tycoon, loves to describe himself as, "The best political leader in Europe and the world."

But how can you not admire a man who rose from relatively humble beginnings in Milan only to become the richest man in Italy.

On top of that he recently commented that right-wing female politicians are "more beautiful" than their left-wing counterparts in the Italian parliament!

"The left has no taste, even when it comes to women," the 71-year-old was quoted as saying. (BBC)