ITALY Berlusconi, barred from office, stars in campaign
ROME — Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi jumped into politics a quartercentury ago vowing to save Italy from the communists. Now he’s waging a crusade to keep Italian populists out of the government.
To be clear, the 81-yearold Berlusconi cannot seek his fourth premiership or even run for a seat in Parliament in Italy’s March 4 election due to a tax fraud conviction. But he won’t let himself be stopped by that — nor by years of sex scandals or a long list of criminal trials.
Berlusconi is out to foil the 5-Star Movement in its goal to enter national government for the first time. He’s wooing Italians to vote instead for his center-right Forza Italia party, which he created in the early 1990s with the aim of keeping Italy’s communists from gaining power.
The 5-Stars, born of an Internet-based citizens’ movement, denounce established politicians as parasites, depict the European Union as burdening Italians with harmful rules and confidently await what they predict will soon be the demise of the shared euro currency.
“In this election, there is a force that is populist, rebel, appealing to the have-nots, which is absolutely dangerous. I’d say even more dangerous than the post-communists we have now,” Berlusconi said, the latter reference his shorthand for former communists in Italy’s ruling Democratic Party.
Interviewed on one his TV empire’s talk shows, the billionaire businessman proceeded to describe the 5-Stars as “people, who for the most part, have never worked.” He contended that 5-Stars regard “with great envy” those who, “through their work, have achieved a certain well-being, which becomes hatred toward those who produce wealth, in other words, entrepreneurs and toward the rich.”
The 5-Stars have pledged, if elected, to reduce income taxes, especially on Italy’s lowermiddle class and singleincome families.
Berlusconi built a business empire that included a soccer team, apartment developments, advertising, publishing and the nation’s largest private TV network.
Political foes contend he entered politics to protect the needs of his businesses. Italians, apparently undaunted by warnings about Berlusconi’s potential conflicts of interests, sent him three times to the premier’s office: in 1994, 2001 and 2008.
A flurry of opinion polls have tagged the 5-Star Movement as Italy’s most popular party but say it’s unlikely to win enough seats in Parliament for an absolute majority.
A hung Parliament could be the result of the March 4 vote, which political analysts predict will produce three blocs: the 5-Star Movement, Berlusconi’s center-right alliance and the centerleft forces led by former Premier Matteo Renzi.
The 5-Stars’ candidate for premier, Luigi Di Maio, insists that to keep the 5-Stars politically pure, he won’t enter into a coalition government.
So Berlusconi is being touted by political analysts as a potential “kingmaker,” maneuvering to forge a “grand coalition” with moderates in the Democratic fold, which lost many of its former Communists as Renzi steered the party more toward the center.