Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi (born September 29, 1936 in Milan ) is an Italian politician and businessman . He was Prime Minister of Italy four times (1994-1995, 2001-2005, 2005-2006 and 2008-2011) and interim Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Economy and Health. From 1994 to 2013, Berlusconi was a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies . From March to November 2013 he was a member of the Senate . He has been a member of the European Parliament since the 2019 European elections .
Berlusconi is the owner of the Fininvest group . According to Forbes 2021 list, he is one of the richest Italians with a fortune of $ 7.7 billion . He was also president of football club AC Milan from 1986 to 2004 and from 2006 to 2008 .
In 1993 Berlusconi founded the party Forza Italia , which merged in 2009 with the Alleanza Nazionale , a longtime ally of his party, into the party Il Popolo della Libertà (PdL), founded on his initiative. At the founding party conference on March 29, 2009, he was elected its chairman. On November 12, 2011, Berlusconi resigned from his post as Prime Minister of Italy for the last time; his successor was Mario Monti . On November 16, 2013, Berlusconi had the PdL renamed Forza Italia after a PdL group from Enrico Letta 's government led by Angelino Alfano Berlusconi got in the way and already on November 15, 2013 the Nuovo Centrodestra party as a split who founded the PdL.
In addition to his political career, Berlusconi is known to the public for his affairs and bunga-bunga parties . Several cases are pending against him in Italian courts. On August 1, 2013, he was convicted of tax fraud and subsequently banned from holding public office for six years. The ban was lifted early on May 12, 2018.
Berlusconism , a form of populism in Italy , is named after Berlusconi.
Italian media gave Berlusconi the nicknames Il Cavaliere (German: The Knight ), referring to the title Cavaliere del Lavoro bestowed on him by a 1977 Order of Merit for Labor , and Il Caimano (German: The Caiman ), thus giving the metaphorical title to a satirical film by Nanni Moretti from 2006 picked up.
Life
private life
Berlusconi is the eldest son of Luigi Berlusconi and Rosa Bossi and the brother of Maria Antonietta and Paolo Berlusconi . His father was an employee of Banca Rasini , where he rose to the rank of managing director. In 1954 Silvio Berlusconi obtained his high school diploma at the Salesian high school Sant'Ambrogio in Milan . He then began studying law at the University of Milan , graduating cum laude in 1961 with a thesis on advertising contracts . For his work, he won a prize of 2 million lire, advertised by the advertising agency Manzoni. Alongside his studies, he worked as a vacuum cleaner salesman and as a singer and emcee in nightclubs and on cruise ships . After graduating, Berlusconi did not do military service , which was still mandatory at the time .
In 1965 he married Carla Elvira Lucia Dall'Oglio, with whom he has two children: Maria Elvira , called Marina (b. 1966) and Pier Silvio (b. 1969). In 1985 Berlusconi divorced.
In 1990 he married the actress Veronica Lario (* 1956) (real name Miriam Bartolini ), with whom he had three children: Barbara (* 1984), Eleonora (* 1986) and Luigi (* 1988). In early May 2009, Lario announced that she wanted to file for divorce. In May 2010, Berlusconi and his estranged wife agreed on alimony. Accordingly, Lario receives 3.6 million euros a year and a lifelong right to live in the villa near Milan, which she lives with her three children. Lario had previously demanded €43m a year. In February 2014, the marriage was dissolved in an interim judgment, but the divorce was not yet complete, as the amount of the maintenance payments was still being litigated for years.
On December 17, 2012, Berlusconi announced his engagement to showgirl Francesca Pascale (b. 1985), who, at his initiative, was a member of the Naples Provincial Council from 2009 to 2012. Pascale became known as a dancer on Telecapri 's show Telecafone . After Berlusconi's election defeat in 2006, Pascale founded the support group Silvio ci manchi (We miss Silvio you).
In 2020, Berlusconi separated from Pascale and entered into a relationship with MP Marta Fascina (b. 1990).
Berlusconi as an entrepreneur
The Holding Fininvest
Silvio Berlusconi has bundled his entrepreneurial activities in the Holding Fininvest SpA. He owns 63.3% of the shares, his daughter Marina and his son Pier Silvio from his first marriage each 7.65%, his three other children Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi the remaining 21.4% (2016 sales: 5.05 billion euros , net profit: 124 million euros, around 17,500 employees). The previous construction activities and the football club AC Milan have now been sold.
Fininvest, based in Rome and Milan, holds shares in three public limited companies ( SpA ):
- It holds 40.2% of Mediaset SpA based in Milan , which is active in the television, film and cinema business (sales in 2017: 3.63 billion euros, net profit: 90 million euros, around 5500 employees).
- Mondadori SpA, based in Segrate near Milan, is 53.3% owned by Fininvest. The publishing house produces magazines, books and radio (sales in 2017: 1.27 billion euros, net profit: 30 million euros, around 3000 employees).
- In the third 30% stake in Mediolanum SpA , based in Milan, Fininvest acts more as a financier. The company is entrepreneurially managed by founder Ennio Doris (36% stake) and is active in the insurance, investment and direct banking business (premium income: 2.73 billion euros, commissions: 0.5 billion euros, net profit: 131 million euros, 1900 employees).
Beginning in construction
After some experience as a real estate agent during his student days, Berlusconi founded his first company, Cantieri Riuniti Milanesi Srl , in 1961 together with the building contractor Pietro Canali . Thanks to a guarantee from the banker Carlo Rasini (owner and co-founder of Banca Rasini , for which Berlusconi's father worked), the firm was able to acquire land on Via Alciati .
In 1963, Berlusconi founded the company Edilnord Sas . The necessary money was provided by Carlo Rasini and the Swiss entrepreneur Carlo Rezzonico with the joint- stock company for real estate locations in Residence Centers AG based in Lugano . Some of the anonymous funds from the Swiss joint-stock company were deposited with the International Bank in Zurich and reached Edilnord Centri Residenziali via Banca Rasini .
In 1964, construction of several high-rise buildings began in Brugherio , where a model city for 4000 residents was to be built. The first houses were completed in 1965, but they did not sell easily. In 1968 Edilnord Sas di Lidia Borsani e C. was founded (Lidia Borsani is a cousin of Berlusconi), which acquired 712,000 m² of land in the municipality of Segrate and in 1969 began building the huge Milano 2 residential complex .
In 1972, the old Edilnord was dissolved and Edilnord Centri Residenziali Sas came into being, again Lidia Borsani acted as shareholder, again the public limited company for real estate locations in residence centers AG provided the necessary financial means.
In 1973, Berlusconi founded Italcantieri , first as Srl ( GmbH ), then as SpA (Italian public limited company). The company was financed by Swiss trust companies, namely Cofigen , which was associated with the Banca della Svizzera Italiana , and Eti AG Holding in Chiasso . In the same year, through the mediation of the lawyer Cesare Previti , he acquired the Villa Casati Stampa in Arcore , his main residence today. The seller was a minor heiress represented by Previti.
In 1974, Immobiliare San Martino was founded in Rome with the manager Marcello Dell'Utri , an old friend from student days who later helped him found the Forza Italia party and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2010 for connections to the mafia . The capital was provided by two BNL trust companies .
In 1978 the companies "Edilnord" and "Immobilie San Marino" merged to form Milano 2 SpA .
TV
In 1972, Berlusconi founded the local TV station "Milano 2" for the residents of the "Milano 2" satellite town he built. Originally, it could only be received within a radius of about two kilometers and primarily broadcast light entertainment and short messages. That was Berlusconi's entry into the Italian media world, which he would dominate a few years later. Long-distance or even nationwide broadcasting, private TV stations were then and for almost a decade banned. The transmission area of this first Berlusconi channel was extended over the following three to four years to cover all of Milan and large parts of Lombardy, with the channel being renamed “Telemilano”.
In 1980, a football tournament was played between the national teams of Argentina , Brazil , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands and Uruguay (the so-called mundialito ). Nationwide protests erupted, supported by major dailies such as Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport , as state television company RAI did not broadcast the games live. Eventually, RAI had to allow Berlusconi's Canale 5 ( Telemilano 's successor ) to use satellites for nationwide broadcasting.
In 1982, Berlusconi began broadcasting the same programming across all of its regional broadcast stations, creating a de facto new national TV channel.
In 1982 he acquired the Italia 1 television channel from the publisher Edilio Rusconi , and in 1984 the Rete 4 channel from the Mondadori publishing group . With these purchases, Mediaset , the media company of the Berlusconi group Fininvest , became the great adversary of the former monopolist RAI. In the course of the eighties he expanded into the European media market:
- 1986 to France with La Cinq ,
- 1987 with Tele 5 to Germany (until 1992),
- 1989 with Telecinco to Spain .
In Italy, Mediaset owns three terrestrial channels, which account for a good third of all Italian advertising. With the introduction of digital television, the number of national channels will increase to 60, of which Mediaset will only be able to hold 20% (instead of the previous 25%).
He is active in the advertising business with the company Publitalia 80 , which belongs to Mediaset .
Other media and publishing
Silvio Berlusconi is the majority shareholder in two of the most important Italian publishing houses, Mondadori and Einaudi , as well as in several small ones (Elemond, Sperling & Kupfer , Grijalbo, Le Monnier, Pianeta scuola, Edizioni Frassinelli, Electa Napoli, Riccardo Ricciardi editore, editrice Poseidona).
Berlusconi controls the Medusa Cinema chain ; he is no longer involved in the Blockbuster Italia video rental business .
In 2008, Berlusconi, who often complained about distorted portrayals of his personal career and the dominance of the left, wanted to set up his own revisionist -oriented history channel on the Internet; the project, called Ovopedia in reference to Wikipedia , financed by Fininvest and operated from Milan, seems to have come to a standstill in the meantime.
trade and insurance
Berlusconi owned the retail chains Standa (now sold to Germany's Rewe ), and Euromercato (now owned by France's Carrefour ). He claims he was forced to sell because left-leaning mayors stopped granting him concessions for new shops after entering politics.
The companies Mediolanum and Programma Italia are active in the credit and insurance sectors.
Sports
Berlusconi was the owner of AC Milan football club from 1986 to 2017 . He was president of the club until 2004, when a conflict of interest law forced him to resign.
In 2004, Tuttosport newspaper , citing testimony from a former Edilnord employee, reported that Berlusconi used to be a fan of big local rivals Inter Milan . In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport in 2005, former Inter president Ivanoe Fraizzoli's widow claimed that the Cavaliere had tried to buy the club in the early 1980s, which was later also confirmed by Sandro Mazzola . Berlusconi himself stated on this case:
"Voglio precisare che non sono mai stato interista, perché non si può cambiare religione."
"I want to make it clear that I've never been an Inter fan because you can't change your religion."
He also founded Polisportiva Milan in the early 1990s by merging some older clubs. Club sports include baseball , volleyball , rugby , and ice hockey . A few years later the club was dissolved again.
After resigning as Italy's Prime Minister, Berlusconi announced on November 30, 2011 that he would be returning to AC Milan, stating: "It is certain that I will take over as Milan's presidency again. I'm the club boss who has won the most in football."
In April 2017, Berlusconi's Holding Fininvest sold AC Milan to a Chinese consortium led by entrepreneur Li Yonghong for a total of 740 million euros.
On September 28, 2018, the SS Monza 1912 was taken over by Finivest.
assets
According to Forbes 2021 list, he is one of the richest Italians with a fortune of $ 7.7 billion .
Berlusconi as a politician
Beginning of political career
In 1978 he joined the Propaganda Due (P2), originally a Masonic lodge used in the 1970s to cover up a criminal political conspiracy whose members were held responsible for the 1980 attack on Bologna Central Station (85 dead). .
Despite his proximity to P2 member and head of the Partito Socialista Italiano and Prime Minister Bettino Craxi , who helped him build his media empire, Berlusconi did not get directly involved in politics for years. When voices grew louder in Parliament to curtail Mediaset's dominance in the media sector, he became active.
In 1993 he supported the party secretary of the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano /Destra Nazionale (MSI) Gianfranco Fini in the run-off election for the post of mayor on December 5 in Rome , by publicly announcing that he would not hesitate for a minute to vote for Fini.
Initially, Berlusconi tried to win over centrist politicians like Mariotto Segni and Mino Martinazzoli to build a new, moderate, anti-communist alliance. Then, on January 26, 1994, he announced his entry into politics in a pre-recorded speech on television. As a motive, he stated that he wanted to avert the “ communist danger”, i. H. a victory for the centre-left alliance.
Parliamentary elections 1994 – Berlusconi I government
In the winter of 1993 , the political movement Forza Italia emerged with the strong involvement of officials from his companies, especially Publitalia 80 . On January 18, 1994, ten weeks before the general elections , the party Forza Italia was founded, which particularly sought to attract centrist and centre-right voters who, following the exposure of the Tangentopoli scandal in the wake of the manipulite Investigations and the subsequent collapse of the Democrazia Cristiana had little choice alternatives.
Also thanks to an elaborate election campaign in which Berlusconi used all his media power in his favor (it was only later that the par condicio law was passed, which obliges the television stations to grant all leading politicians and parties an approximately equal amount of time in the transmission time), the 1994 general election was a great success for Forza Italia (21.01 percent). After the 27–28 March 1994 election, Berlusconi formed a centre-right government with Gianfranco Fini 's Alleanza Nazionale and Umberto Bossi 's Lega Nord .
After a few months, the latter announced the alliance with Forza Italia. One of the main reasons was that the Lega Nord could not explain to its regular constituency why the secessionist party was suddenly sitting at the government table in Rome.
After the fall of the centre-right government, a centre-left government was formed under Prime Minister Lamberto Dini , supported by the Lega Nord. This interim government, called Governo dei tecnici (Technical Government or Government of Technocrats), appointed by the President, agreed to new elections at the beginning of 1996 and resigned.
1996 general election
After Berlusconi failed to agree on an alliance with the Northern League, the Ulivo alliance won the May 1996 elections led by Romano Prodi , who became prime minister and secured Italy's entry into the eurozone , but resigned in 1998 after a lost vote on the vote of confidence had to. He was replaced by Massimo D'Alema , who also resigned as prime minister after the Ulivo alliance lost in the Italian regional elections in 2000 and was eventually replaced by Giuliano Amato . Berlusconi became opposition leader and worked with Massimo D'Alema, who later became prime minister and then chairman of the Democratici di Sinistra , on a project for constitutional reform that he ultimately prevented himself. Berlusconi was also a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2001 .
Parliamentary elections 2001 – governments Berlusconi II and III
In May 2001, Berlusconi won the parliamentary elections for the second time , again accompanied by a large advertising effort (e.g. every Italian household was sent a 128-page Berlusconi biography). After the elections, Berlusconi again formed a coalition with the Alleanza Nazionale, the (significantly weakened) Northern League, the Christian Democratic UDC and several small parties.
The electoral success was probably due on the one hand to the fragmentation of the centre-left parties and on the other to the so-called Contratto con gli italiani (treaty with the Italians) published during the election campaign. In this contract, Berlusconi promised potential voters tax breaks, halving the unemployment rate, large state projects, increasing minimum pensions and reducing crime. To this end, he undertook not to stand again in the event of a failure in the next elections.
After the resignation of the previous Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero on January 6, 2002, Berlusconi took over the office until November 14, 2002. His successor was Franco Frattini . From 1 July to 31 December 2003 he was rotating President of the Council of the European Union .
The Berlusconi II government is the Italian government that has held on to power for the longest time since World War II . Nevertheless, government reshuffles frequently took place, most of which resulted from disputes between coalition parties.
On April 20, 2005, after losing regional elections, Berlusconi resigned after much back and forth in the course of a government reshuffle, but then immediately became prime minister for the third time. From March 10th to May 17th, 2006 he also took over the office of Health Minister.
2006 general election
Before the parliamentary elections on April 9th and 10th, 2006, there were numerous controversies surrounding Berlusconi. Italian business associations have openly criticized the economic policies of the past five years, which have resulted in almost zero growth (0.1% in 2005). In her opinion, Italy was in danger of slipping out of the group of G8 countries. Berlusconi described the allegations as absurd and again warned of the dangers of a “communist” takeover by the centre-left alliance. The election campaign was characterized by strong verbal radicalization.
Berlusconi resigned as head of government on May 2, 2006 after the very narrow electoral defeat by the centre-left alliance L'Unione led by Romano Prodi . However, Berlusconi was hesitant to recognize Prodi's victory and called for a recount of the votes, especially since the Unione had only a wafer-thin lead in the Chamber of Deputies and was even outnumbered in the Senate.
The division of Italy, which Berlusconi repeatedly lamented after the election and for which he also warned of the need for a grand coalition (which the left immediately ruled out as long as Silvio Berlusconi was still part of the leadership of Forza Italia ), was probably also an important part self-inflicted. Supported by many of his coalition partners, he had constantly and urgently appealed to the fears of communism that were still deeply rooted in Italy (especially among older generations) during the course of the election campaign. By simply "reversing" most of the accusations made against him (for example, he accused the "Leftists" of controlling 70% of the media, just before the election he also said 90%), he created in this one respect sent a stalemate in public opinion; This made a factual discussion in the general public more difficult.
Parliamentary elections 2008 – Berlusconi IV government
In the run-up to the 2008 general election , Berlusconi planned to create a new collective party consisting of his Forza Italia, Alleanza Nazionale , Lega Nord and UDC in response to the merger of the Partito Democratico , but this was rejected by the other parties. Eventually his party and Alleanza Nazionale formed a joint electoral alliance called Il Popolo della Libertà . In the elections on April 13 and 14, 2008, Berlusconi's centre-right alliance consisting of the Il Popolo della Libertà alliance and the other parties Lega Nord and Movimento per l'Autonomia won the House of Representatives by a clear margin of 46.81% (344 seats) and in the Senate 47.32% (171 seats) ahead of Walter Veltroni's Partito Democratico with 37.54% (246 seats) and 38.01% (132 seats) and was able to form the government with a sufficient majority in both houses of parliament . On May 8, 2008, Silvio Berlusconi took office as Prime Minister of Italy for the third time in 14 years, inaugurating his fourth cabinet . In March of the following year, the governing parties Forza Italia and Alleanza Nazionale, which had already formed a joint faction after the election, finally joined together to form the new party Il Popolo della Libertà.
In the summer of 2002, the Berlusconi government tightened the immigration law that had been in force until then with the Bossi-Fini law (named after its authors). Nevertheless, it had legalized 700,000 illegal immigrants ( Italian clandestini ). Prior to the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU (which took place on January 1, 2007 ), the then Berlusconi government failed to negotiate immigration limits as other European governments had done. When there was a massive influx of migrants from Romania after 2007, who attracted attention due to the high crime rate, the subject of public safety was brought to the fore in the media in order to accuse the subsequent government under Romano Prodi of negligence.
In July 2008, the new Berlusconi government declared a nationwide state of emergency (previously it had only applied to the regions of Sicily, Puglia and Calabria ) in the face of ongoing illegal immigration . According to the Ministry of the Interior, 10,611 boat people reached the Italian coast in the first half of 2008, about twice as many as in 2007. According to Interior Minister Roberto Maroni , the instrument of the state of emergency makes it possible to cope with the "persistent and exceptional" influx. The opposition accused the government of stirring up fears among the population. Government circles pointed out that the Prodi cabinet had already declared a national state of emergency in 2007, but limited it to the three southern Italian regions at the beginning of 2008 due to the seasonal decline in immigration. In May 2009, Berlusconi compared the Italian refugee camps to " concentration camps ". He had explained that refugees would be spared the "concentration camp-like" conditions in the reception camps if their asylum applications were already being examined in Libya. The comparison was heavily criticized, especially abroad. The tightened immigration rules are based on German immigration law.
By working with Libyan authorities and fending off migrant boats on the high seas, the Berlusconi government reduced the influx. The tough approach was also sharply criticized by the Catholic Church in Italy . In July 2009, it was decided to legalize 500,000 foreign domestic workers (also as a measure against the nursing shortage ).
On December 13, 2009, after an election rally in Milan, Berlusconi was attacked by a man and injured in the face. The 42-year-old criminal, Massimo Tartaglia, who had no criminal record, threw an alabaster statuette of Milan Cathedral in his face from two meters away. Berlusconi's nose was broken and two of his teeth were damaged; a wound on his lip was bleeding. Tartaglia cited political reasons as the motive for the crime. Four days after the attack, Berlusconi left the hospital.
Unity within the Popolo della Libertà was tested by Berlusconi's internal rival Gianfranco Fini , former leader of the Alleanza Nazionale , who criticized the prime minister's authoritarian leadership style and set up a sort of internal opposition circle, "Generazione Italia". Fini, who also accused Berlusconi of giving the Northern League too much influence, let it end in a heated exchange of blows at a party event in Rome in April 2010. Berlusconi rejected the criticism and suggested that Fini resign as President of the Chamber of Deputies.
After the government passed drastic austerity measures totaling 24 billion euros for the next two years in view of the Greek sovereign debt crisis at the end of May , a controversial law restricting phone surveillance followed and Aldo Brancher resigned in early July 2010 . Brancher, a longtime confidant of Berlusconi and a former manager of his company Fininvest, had been appointed to the cabinet as Minister for the Implementation of Federalism. After almost three weeks, after being charged with receiving stolen goods, Brancher announced his resignation from the ministerial post. On July 30, 2010, Berlusconi lost his majority in the House of Representatives after Gianfranco Fini presented his own parliamentary group Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia (Engl.: "Future and Freedom for Italy") with more than 30 MPs. At the end of September 2010, with the support of the Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia, among others, Berlusconi survived a vote of confidence that he had combined with a five-point program for the remainder of the legislative period. On December 14, 2010, Berlusconi had to face a vote of no confidence from the opposition, which he narrowly survived.
The results of the local elections in May 2011 were seen as a serious defeat for Berlusconi. On July 8, 2011, Berlusconi announced in an interview that he would no longer run for prime minister in the 2013 parliamentary elections; He also does not aspire to the office of President. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano would stand as his successor .
On September 29, 2011, the Milan newspaper “ Corriere della Sera ” published a letter (dated August 5, 2011) from Jean-Claude Trichet (the outgoing head of the ECB ) and Mario Draghi , the then designated head of the ECB, which was initially kept secret whom these Berlusconi are issuing an ultimatum to put his economic and financial policies in order.
At the beginning of August – just a few days after this “fire letter” was sent – the ECB began to buy up large amounts of Italian government bonds – interest rates for taking on new debt had meanwhile risen massively for Italy. This also made the public more aware of how serious the situation is for Italy.
On November 9, 2011, Berlusconi announced his resignation, which he finally submitted officially to President Giorgio Napolitano on November 12, 2011. On November 13, 2011, President Giorgio Napolitano commissioned non-party economist Mario Monti to form an interim government (a government of technocrats ); Monti agreed "with reservations".
General elections 2013
On December 6, 2012, Berlusconi announced that he would run as his party's lead candidate in the 2013 parliamentary elections. He qualified this announcement on December 12 and made his candidacy dependent on Mario Monti taking office.
The Italian press saw this as an ill-conceived political maneuver. He was more driven by frustration with his party friends. Berlusconi feels cheated. His creation, the PdL , fell apart without his leadership.
Conviction and loss of mandate in 2013
On August 1, 2013, he was first sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud in the Mediaset case. The criminal offense and Berlusconi's age meant in the Italian legal system that he had to spend the sentence in house arrest or under official supervision with social duties for a period of one year, unless he was pardoned by the president .
On September 18, 2013, following Berlusconi's conviction as a tax evader, the Senate Immunity Committee refused to let him remain in the Senate. Berlusconi and his party took the view that the anti-corruption law legge Severino , which is the legal basis for the exclusion and banning of office of legally convicted elected officials, could not be applied “retrospectively” against him under Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights .
On September 28, 2013, Angelino Alfano , deputy prime minister in the Letta cabinet and secretary of Berlusconi's PdL party, announced that his party's five ministers would resign. This was justified with a protest against a plan to increase VAT, but many observers saw behind it a political maneuver by Berlusconi with the aim of bringing about new elections. A day earlier, after a cabinet meeting on a fiscal policy package failed , Prime Minister Enrico Letta had announced that he would put a vote of confidence in both chambers of parliament on October 2, 2013 to see whether he still had a stable governing majority. The ministers of the PdL signed their resignations on the same weekend at the behest of Berlusconi, but criticized the "extremist" decision of their party leader. On October 1, Alfano called on the more than 40 PdL MPs to vote for Letta on the vote of confidence. In the evening of the same day, Letta rejected the resignations of the PdL ministers. After it became apparent to Berlusconi that his party would not unanimously support a vote of no confidence and that there was even a risk of an open break with the PdL, he declared in a surprising about-face shortly before the vote of confidence in the Senate that the PdL would vote for the Letta government to vote for what then also happened. Since the House of Representatives of the Italian Parliament then voted in favor of Letta, Berlusconi's attempt to bring down the Letta government failed across the board due to resistance from Berlusconi's own party.
On October 4, 2013, the Senate Immunity Committee voted again on Berlusconi. The Immunity Committee also rejected this second request to keep him in the Senate. After the renaming of the PdL on November 16, 2013 to the "old" Forza Italia under Berlusconi and the split of a party Nuovo Centrodestra (NCD) founded on November 15, 2013 under Alfano, which supported the Letta government, Alfano had nevertheless announced that on 27 November 2013 to vote against Berlusconi's expulsion from the Senate. On October 19, 2013, a Milan Court of Appeal set the duration of the ban from public office (ancillary to the judgment) imposed as a result of tax fraud in the "Mediaset case" at two years, as requested by the public prosecutor. On November 27, 2013, the Senate plenary voted on this motion and stripped Berlusconi of his Senate seat. In addition, a six-year mandate ban was imposed until November 2019.
The basis of this decision is not the conviction that he was not allowed to hold office for two years, but the anti-corruption law of January 5, 2013 legge Severino (named after the signing Minister of Justice), according to which no member u. of the Senate who has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for certain offenses (including tax fraud) (Art. 1). The law applies to Italian offices and, according to Art. 4, to MEPs who want to become members of the European Parliament for Italy. With the ineligibility, the law does not determine a penalty, for which the prohibition of retroactivity would apply according to the constitution (Art. 25 Para. 2 of the Constitution), but sets the requirements for the ineligibility (“incandidabilità”) as an administrative regulation.
European elections 2019
In the spring of 2018, a Milan court decided to shorten the six-year mandate ban by one year for "good behavior". This allowed Berlusconi to run as the lead candidate of Forza Italia in the 2019 European elections. In the election, Forza Italia surpassed the four percent threshold applicable in Italy for European elections , which means that Berlusconi is elected as a member of the European Parliament.
candidacy for the office of President
On January 11, 2022, Berlusconi leaked that his Forza Italia party would leave the current coalition and force a snap general election if Draghi were to switch from prime minister to president .
On January 13, 2022, after meeting with Berlusconi, several Italian centre-right parties announced their support for his candidacy for the presidency. Enrico Letta , leader of the Social Democrats ( Partito Democratico ), and Giuseppe Conte , leader of the populist Five Star Movement , confirmed at the same time that they would do everything possible to prevent Berlusconi from being elected. Ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (small party Italia Viva ) called Berlusconi the wrong candidate. EPP Chairman Manfred Weber and SVP MEP Herbert Dorfmann spoke out in favor of Berlusconi, which resulted in similar criticism at European level. Four days later, party secretary Matteo Salvini of the Lega announced that Berlusconi had to disclose before the elections began whether he could gather enough votes behind him. Otherwise he, Salvini, would already have an alternative proposal which he believes will find a large majority. Parts of the press saw Salvini's statement as the beginning of the end of Berlusconi's candidacy. On January 22, two days before the first ballot, Berlusconi announced that he would not run for president.
The President of the Republic is elected by both chambers of Parliament in a joint session for a seven-year term. The first ballot will take place on January 24, 2022. There will only be one ballot per day (because of the election process and the Corona measures ). A two-thirds majority (at least 673 votes) is required for the first three ballots; from the fourth ballot, an absolute majority (at least 505 votes) is sufficient. Berlusconi's alliance has 451 votes; the parties on the left have 414 votes.
Political content and style
Berlusconi likes to present himself as an alternative to the old class of politicians, as an entrepreneur in the service of politics. He wraps his policies in simple and bold slogans that address the Italian people directly (e.g. “a worker for prime minister” or “a million jobs”). His “contract with the Italians”, which he signed on television before the 2001 parliamentary elections , is famous.
Berlusconi has claimed that the principle of his policy is to apply the management methods of a big corporation to the government of a country. He called the constitutional reform, with which he extended the power of the prime minister in his second legislative period, “strengthening the chairman of the Italian company”.
Berlusconi was known for forging political contacts through friendly relations with other statesmen. Former American President George W. Bush , former British Prime Minister Tony Blair , Russian President Vladimir Putin and – until his death in 2011 – the longtime Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi were considered “friends” of Berlusconi . Berlusconi honored the latter with a kiss on the hand in spring 2010 .
Another characteristic of Berlusconi was that he rarely faced a direct confrontation on television. After a TV duel with Romano Prodi before the 1996 elections, he declined to take part in TV discussions for nine years, until finally, on April 5, 2005, after the regional elections lost by his coalition, he surprisingly appeared on a program on RAI Tre (the third Italian program) appeared and discussed with Massimo D'Alema and Francesco Rutelli .
In 2003, Berlusconi claimed of his legal treatment in criminal trials for corruption allegations: "It is true that everyone is equal before the law, but I am more equal because the majority of the people voted for me."
Polarizations, controversial claims
Berlusconi's polarizing statements, jokes and taunts have been widely criticized. One of the best-known examples in Germany is his appearance on July 2, 2003 in the EU Parliament . A day after he took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council , German MP Martin Schulz ( SPD ) heavily criticized Berlusconi for his domestic policies . Berlusconi replied:
“Signor Schulz, so che in Italia c'è un produttore che sta montando un film sui campi di concentramento nazisti: la suggestirò per il ruolo di kapò. It's perfect!"
“Mr Schulz, I know a producer in Italy who is making a film about Nazi concentration camps. I'll nominate you for the role of a kapos . You are made for it.”
Berlusconi later claimed he was referring to the television series known in German-speaking countries as Hogan 's Heroes , which starred a dimwitted German warden named Hans Georg Schultz (played by John Banner ). Berlusconi insisted he was joking; nevertheless, this comparison caused a brief diplomatic crisis between Italy and Germany. She calmed down again after Berlusconi made a telephone statement to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder .
Berlusconi took up the issue again on April 26, 2014 (before the 2014 European elections ) and, with a view to his appearance in the European Parliament on July 2, 2003 (through which he would have done "extraordinary publicity") for Martin Schulz, claimed for the Germans the concentration camps , with the exception of the “ Katyn camps”, would never have existed. Martin Schulz, then the European Socialists' top candidate for President of the European Commission, replied that Berlusconi was synonymous with hatred, envy and strife. Sergei Stanishev , leader of the Party of European Socialists , said Berlusconi's words were an "insult to the entire German people". He called on Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker (then leading candidate of the European People's Party , of which Berlusconi's Forza Italia is a member) to protest Berlusconi's statements. The Italian news agency ANSA published quotes. Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the allegations made were "so absurd that the federal government does not comment on them".
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , Berlusconi caused an uproar with the following phrases:
"We must be aware of the sovereignty of our civilization, which consists of principles and values that guarantee us freedom and have brought prosperity to the general public. The West will continue to be a freedom-oriented democracy for the peoples in order to enable the communist and Islamic worlds to peacefully coexist. Unfortunately, part of the Muslim world is 1,400 years behind. Western society has values such as the love of freedom, the freedom of peoples and individuals, which unfortunately do not correspond to the ideals of other civilizations such as e.g. B. the Islamic and communist ideas, fit.”
Other controversial statements by Berlusconi are e.g. B. the quote "con la sinistra al potere, miseria terrore e morte" (English: "With the left in power, misery, horror and death") or his statement in a 2003 newspaper interview that Benito Mussolini never killed anyone and confined itself to putting the destabilizing opposition on furlough.
On January 27, 2013 (January 27 was declared by the United Nations (UN) in 2005 as a day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism ; on January 27, 1945 the concentration camp Auschwitz was liberated) Berlusconi said at a commemoration event in Milan for the Victims of the Holocaust, Mussolini's racial laws were "the worst mistake" during his reign (1922 to 1943); Nevertheless, Mussolini did "good things in many other areas". He also said on this occasion that Italy could not be held responsible for the persecution of the Jews, "Italy was allied with Germany and was therefore forced to use it against Jews."
Berlusconi made several polarizing statements about Italy and the conditions prevailing there. In a comparison to the Holocaust , he claimed : “My children tell me they felt how the families of Jews in Germany must have felt under Hitler's regime. The whole world is against us.” Despite the legal proceedings against him, he does not want to go abroad. Italy is the country he loves. In a telephone recording from 2011, he had said that Italy was a "shitty country" that made him "puke". After his passport was confiscated by Italian authorities following the finality of his conviction as a tax evader, he said: "If I had my passport, I would go to Antigua ".
public controversy
Berlusconi's behavior and remarks about women often caused resentment among sections of the Italian public. For example, he said his party had the prettier female MPs compared to the left-wing parties in Parliament. Berlusconi often appeared in public with models, showgirls or winners of beauty contests or had his picture taken with them. At the end of 2008, Berlusconi appointed Mara Carfagna as Equal Opportunities Minister ( Berlusconi IV Cabinet ). The fact that Carfagna had previously taken part in beauty pageants and posed for nude photos prompted criticism from women's rights activists.
On the PDL list for the European elections in June 2009 , several women who became known through TV appearances as showgirls or models ran as candidates. Berlusconi's then-wife Veronica Lario addressed the public on this occasion and complained that this was very painful for her; she and her children are "victims of this situation". As a result, all but one of these candidates lost their place on the list. Berlusconi said that all the candidates were professional and serious.
Problems between Berlusconi and his wife were repeatedly dealt with in the media. In late April 2009, the daily La Repubblica reported that Berlusconi, who had traveled to Naples to deal with the garbage problem, was present at the 18th birthday party of a young woman named Noemi Letizia. What caused a stir (besides the visit itself) was that Noemi addressed him as “Daddy” and that he had given her an expensive present.
The scandal erupted when Berlusconi's wife spoke publicly about the incident and complained that her husband "frequented minors", "was ill" and "needed help". Shortly thereafter, Lario had her lawyer explain that she wanted a divorce. The newspaper 'Libero' , which is close to Berlusconi , then published an old nude photo of the wife, which presumably came from Berlusconi's archive. Berlusconi himself appeared on state television; he explained that he had never had intimate contact with the young Neapolitan woman and only knew her because her father was the driver of former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi . Noemi's ex-boyfriend, on the other hand, said in an interview with La Repubblica that one day Berlusconi called the then 17-year-old out of the blue because he had discovered her picture and phone number in an application folder. When it became known that Noemi had visited the prime minister in his villa in Sardinia, the father of those affected also commented; but he could not make it credible how he met Berlusconi.
The Spanish daily El País then published a series of paparazzi photos from Berlusconi's villa in Sardinia, which confirmed the impression of easygoing manners at his parties and showed several young women and then Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek naked with an erect penis. In May 2009, 40-year-old Patrizia d'Addario from Bari said she had received money from a local entrepreneur to spend the night with Berlusconi at his villa in Rome, as evidenced by audio recordings. In return, she was subsequently offered a promising candidacy in the upcoming elections. Patrizia d'Addario's sound recordings could be heard on the Internet a little later. Berlusconi denied ever paying a woman, claiming the testimony showed his divine qualities as a lover. At the end of July, businessman Giampaolo Tarantini from Bari reported to the public prosecutor's office that he had brought 30 young women to Berlusconi at 18 parties and paid for sexual services in at least ten cases, of which the prime minister was not informed. Berlusconi declined to comment further, claiming the allegations were part of a smear campaign by his political opponents, particularly the L' Espresso group's daily La Repubblica , to whose defamatory questions he was not required to answer. He later boasted that no other democratically elected head of government had survived such an affair unscathed.
In the course of investigations into two of Berlusconi's friends for encouraging prostitution, the public prosecutor's office interrogated 17-year-old Moroccan Karima el-Mahroug at the end of October 2010 . According to media reports, she told the investigating judges about “ bunga bunga ” (erotic games) at parties in Berlusconi’s Villa San Martino in Arcore near Milan, to which she was invited. The belly dancer, known under the stage name "Ruby Rubacuori", is said to have received 30,000 euros in cash from Silvio Berlusconi. Because he has a heavy workload, he looks at beautiful women from time to time, and this is better "than being gay ," Berlusconi said of the allegations. On February 15, 2011, a court in Milan ruled that Berlusconi must answer to charges of abuse of office and dealing with underage prostitutes. The trial began on April 6, 2011; it was adjourned to May 31, 2011 after a few minutes. Berlusconi and el-Mahroug did not take part in the opening of the trial.
On October 26, 2012, a court in Milan sentenced Berlusconi to four years in prison for tax fraud. An amnesty regulation reduced the sentence to one year in prison. Berlusconi's media empire Mediaset is accused of being involved in dubious offshore deals in the late 1990s . Mediaset has officially acquired for Italy a package of US television series and cinema films from two of its own offshore companies for a price that is far too high. The money was shipped out of the country as a business transaction, where it is said to have served as a kind of war chest and global black fund for Berlusconi.
In March 2013 it became known that the public prosecutor's office in Naples was investigating Berlusconi for corruption and illegal party financing. Among other things, Berlusconi is said to have paid Senator Sergio De Gregorio (* 1960) three million euros to convert him from the Italiani nel Mondo party (which Gregorio himself founded in 2006) to the Berlusconi party.
political program
Forza Italia was a political movement very much tailored to its leader. There were no discernible differences between the party line and Berlusconi's personal views. The party program of Forza Italia was mainly influenced by economically liberal and conservative ideas. During Berlusconi's government there were reforms in the education system, the pension system and the judiciary, with the school reform and the judiciary reform provoking major protests. With a constitutional reform, he wanted to expand the power of the Italian Prime Minister and achieve a reform to strengthen the responsibilities of the regions ; however, the constitutional reform that was passed on his own without involving the opposition was rejected in a referendum after he was voted out . The promised comprehensive tax reform was not implemented, last announced again in early 2010 and postponed indefinitely two days later. In foreign policy, Berlusconi aligned closely with the United States and unreservedly supported the Iraq war . Italian troops did not take part in the combat operations, but were only dispatched after the war officially ended. He also advocated closer ties with Russia and spoke out in favor of Turkey joining the EU . As the first prime minister of the EU, Berlusconi visited the Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka in autumn 2009 . His government enacted stricter laws against illegal immigration; On this issue he also sought cooperation with the other countries in the Mediterranean region , e.g. B. Libya.
Controversies surrounding his role as an entrepreneur and politician
Unexplained funding / mafia ties
To this day it is not possible to clarify the origin of the extensive financial resources that Berlusconi already had as a young entrepreneur. When questioned in court, Berlusconi exercised his right to refuse to answer questions to which a truthful answer could expose him to criminal prosecution. Elsewhere he referred to his father as a financier. The authors Elio Veltri and Marco Travaglio see the origin of his fortune in his association with the Milan bank Banca Rasini . During the time when the father Luigi Berlusconi was employed by the bank, business relationships were established with the Cisalpina Overseas Nassau Bank , whose supervisory board included people who later became famous in a negative context, such as Roberto Calvi , Licio Gelli and Michele Sindona . Banca Rasini was later accused by Michele Sindona and other pentiti (confessed mafiosi) of laundering mafia money. The allegations of money laundering have never been confirmed. The reasons for this lie partly in Swiss banking secrecy and not least in the death of key witness Michele Sindona, who was poisoned with cyanide in March 1986 in the high-security prison in Voghera .
Berlusconi's close associate Marcello Dell'Utri was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2010 for supporting the mafia. The court ruled that until 1992 Dell'Ultri acted as a liaison between Berlusconi and the mafia. The details of this intertwining of economic and criminal interests were set out in the grounds for the judgement. According to the Court of Appeal, which upheld Dell'Utri's seven-year prison sentence in March 2013, Berlusconi had enjoyed the protection of the criminal organization Cosa Nostra between 1974 and 1992 in return for payment of large sums of cash. During the interrogation in this case in September 2012, Berlusconi declared that he only wanted to "help a friend" with the payments.
In the verdict of the Roman Court of Appeal ( Corte d'appello ), in a court case against a close confidant of Berlusconi, at the end of April 2012, it states that Berlusconi paid large sums to the mafia in the 1970s to protect himself and his family from kidnapping to protect.
Founding of Mediaset
The nationwide broadcasts by Canale 5 in the early 1980s were in clear contrast to the legal situation at the time. According to this, privately owned television channels that could be received nationwide were simply forbidden. In 1984, the district judges of the provinces of Rome , Milan and Pescara intervened and ordered the confiscation of the broadcasting stations in their jurisdiction. Four days later, the Craxi government issued a decree allowing broadcasting to resume. However, Parliament refused to convert the decree into law, so Craxi introduced the decree as a bill in Parliament and combined it with a vote of confidence, which ended in Craxi's favour. Three years later, the Constitutional Court reviewed the law and declared it valid, but underlined its provisional nature. Craxi's determined support for Berlusconi's interests was probably due to the close friendship between the two: Craxi was best man at Berlusconi's second wedding and godfather to Barbara Berlusconi.
Only in 1990 was Berlusconi's media empire finally legalized and regulated by the legge Mammì . However, the new law forced him to give up shares in the publishing company of the newspaper Giornale , which he sold to his brother Paolo .
In 1994, the Constitutional Court found that the legge Mammì had not set sufficient restrictions on the concentration of media power. However, this court decision had no consequences.
Entry into politics
A frequently discussed topic is the reasons for Berlusconi's entry into politics. The two most frequently mentioned aspects are the economic condition of Fininvest and the many legal problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Supporters of Berlusconi see his enormous wealth as a guarantee of respectability, since it is absurd to assume that Berlusconi wants to further enrich himself through his political offices. His problems with the judiciary began with the founding of Forza Italia and are the product of plots by his opponents to eliminate Berlusconi through the judiciary. Berlusconi himself stated the following about his reasons:
“Nel '94 scesi in campo perché gli eredi dei comunisti stavano per prendere il potere dopo aver scardinato la democrazia con l'uso politico della giustizia.”
"I became involved in 1994 as the heirs of communism were about to take power, having upended democracy through the political instrumentalization of the judiciary"
He was referring to the collapse of the Italian party landscape in the mid-1990s (see also Tangentopoli and Mani pulite ).
Critics accuse Berlusconi of only going into politics to protect his companies from bankruptcy and himself from legal intervention. Prominent journalists like Enzo Biagi or Indro Montanelli claimed to have heard this from himself (" Se non vado in politica, mi mandano in galera e mi fanno fallire " - If I don't go into politics, they put me in jail and drift me into bankruptcy ).
Some of the Cavaliere 's close friends have since admitted that Fininvest experienced financial difficulties in the early 1990s and that this was a reason for its political activities, e.g. B. Marcello Dell'Utri:
"Silvio Berlusconi è entrato in politica per difendere le sue aziende."
"Silvio Berlusconi entered politics to defend his companies."
“[…] the situation of Fininvest con 5 miliardi di debiti. Franco Tatò, che all'epoca era l'amministratore delegato del gruppo, non vedeva vie d'uscita: 'Cavaliere, dobbiamo portare i libri in tribunale' […] I fatti poi, per fortuna, ci hanno dato ragione e oggi posso dire che senza la decisione di scendere in campo con un suo partito, Berlusconi non avrebbe salvato la pelle e sarebbe finito come Angelo Rizzoli che, con l'inchiesta della P2, andò in carcere e perse l'azienda.”
“[…] the situation of Fininvest with a debt of 5,000 billion lire. Franco Tatò, who was the company's executive director at the time, saw no way out: 'Cavaliere, we have to take the books to court' [...] The following events, fortunately, proved us right and today I can say that Berlusconi without the creation of his party, the skin could not have been saved and ended up like Angelo Rizzoli, who ended up in prison as a result of the investigations into the P2 case and lost his company.”
The figures support these statements: according to the annual report of Mediobanca , Fininvest 's debts in 1992 amounted to 7140 billion lire. In 1993, advertising revenue, which had been growing steadily up until then, showed zero growth.
According to Law 361 of 1957, Berlusconi should not have run at all, which states that persons who have received concessions (in this case TV broadcasting rights) from the state of a significant financial magnitude are ineligible. Nevertheless, the government refrained from appealing, also because of the commitment of the then chairman of the Democratici di Sinistra and later Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema .
conflicts of interest
The direct conflict of interest in relation to the media that Berlusconi was accused of being a particular cause for criticism, since as prime minister he could exert great influence on the state broadcaster RAI while at the same time being a co-owner of the private competitor Mediaset. Together these two companies control 90% of the Italian television market. Through his advertising agency Publitalia 80, Berlusconi's family also controls large parts of the Italian advertising market, with a market share of over 60% in television advertising.
These circumstances were criticized (among many other points) by the British weekly newspaper The Economist (now called “ The Ecommunist ” by Berlusconi ). The dispute reached its climax when Berlusconi sued the magazine in Rome for character assassination, prompting The Economist to publish an open letter to him. In 2004, the Freedom of the Press 2004 Global Survey , an annual report published by the American organization Freedom House , downgraded press freedom in Italy from Free to Partly Free . Reporters Without Borders stated in the same year that Silvio Berlusconi's conflict of interests had still not been resolved and continued to threaten freedom of expression in Italy. Because of Berlusconi's concentrated media power, the accusation goes, there is a risk of extremely partisan reporting on all Italian channels.
In practice, this danger is to be prevented by the par condicio law, which gives all leading politicians and parties approximately the same amount of airtime (also in Mediaset programmes). Although a media law that would have given him control over broad public service media was rejected by President Ciampi in December 2003 , Berlusconi nonetheless exercised significant influence over state broadcaster RAI during his tenure, as evidenced by an incident in 2002 .
On April 18, 2002, during a state visit to Bulgaria , Berlusconi announced the following in a press conference (now dubbed the “Bulgarian Edict” ( editto bulgaro ) by his critics):
“L'uso che Biagi, Santoro, ... come si chiama quell'altro ... Luttazzi, hanno fatto della televisione pubblica, pagata con i soldi di tutti, è un uso criminoso. E io credo che sia un dovere della nuova dirigenza di non permettere più che questo avvenga.”
“The abuse committed by Biagi, Santoro and … what's his name … Luttazzi on public television, paid for with taxpayer money, is criminal. It is the job of the new RAI leadership to prevent something like this from happening again.”
The aforementioned (two journalists and a comedian) had previously criticized Berlusconi on RAI programs. Supporters of Berlusconi argued that state television must always be neutral when it comes to politics, opponents saw the pluralism that is typical of a public service in a democracy endangered. In any case, after December 2002 none of the three worked for RAI anymore. Enzo Biagi and Daniele Luttazzi were no longer given new contracts. Michele Santoro , after a forced break of several years, fought for his reinstatement by court order.
Before taking office for the first time in 1994, Berlusconi had promised to legislate within three months to eliminate the conflict of interest, a promise he failed to keep. In fact, some observers therefore spoke of "convergence of interests" instead of conflict of interest. The combination of media and political power with its amalgamation of private and public interests therefore remained controversial because, on the one hand, it undermined the principle of democratic equality of opportunity and, on the other hand, gave the entrepreneur Berlusconi numerous advantages over his competitors. In fact, in 2004 the President of Mediaset SpA, Fedele Confalonieri, estimated the benefits that could result for the prime minister's group from the new media law (Legge Gasparri) pushed by his government at one to two billion euros.
Berlusconi is accused by his political opponents and critics at home and abroad that many of the laws passed under his governments are obviously tailored to his interests, primarily to protect himself and his followers from access by the Italian judiciary.
- Since a legal reform, balance sheet falsification is only punished with a fine if the value of the falsification is less than 5% of the annual result or less than 1% of the balance sheet total. If these values are exceeded, and only then, is accounting falsification still a criminal offense punishable by up to six years in prison.
- Since the so-called Cirami Law, it has been possible to dismiss a judge if the accused has “reasonable suspicion” of a conflict of interest or partiality.
- The Ex-Cirielli Law introduced shorter statutes of limitations for most offences.
The following measures also drew a great deal of criticism:
- the law with which he said he had eliminated his conflict of interest as prime minister and CEO, which meant that Berlusconi only had to resign as president of AC Milan.
- the decree to rescue Rete 4 , one of its television stations (which the ECJ has classified as contrary to European law).
- the Gasparri Media Act, which underpinned Berlusconi's de facto monopoly in the commercial television market and secured his supremacy in the publishing industry under antitrust law.
The new centre-left government did not find a majority in parliament for the repeal of the so-called ad personam laws after Berlusconi's electoral defeat in 2006 until the premature end of the 2008 legislative period.
At Berlusconi's urging, two political immunity laws were passed during his tenure . The law passed in 2003 (so -called Lodo Maccanico-Schifani ) to protect the five highest offices of state initially helped Berlusconi in his pending criminal proceedings, but was then declared unconstitutional and thus ineffective. On July 22, 2008, the Italian parliament approved an almost identical law (the so -called Lodo Alfano ), which the country's four highest-ranking politicians, the president, the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate and the head of government, i.e. Berlusconi himself, during their term of office any prosecution protected. The Italian Constitutional Court declared this law unconstitutional in October 2009, saying the law violated the principle that "everyone is equal before the law". As a result, the criminal proceedings against Berlusconi, which were suspended due to the special law, can be resumed.
court proceedings
Berlusconi was indicted in a large number of cases in court, some of which resulted in final convictions. In connection with numerous charges, Berlusconi himself said that he felt he was being unjustly persecuted by the judiciary. He accused prosecutors and judges involved of bias and claimed the Italian judiciary wanted to overthrow him; she works hand in hand with leftists ; he called them " Red Robes":
“Appena sono sceso in politica, hanno cominciato a fischiare i proiettili delle procure eccellenti per rovesciare il mio governo.”
"As soon as I entered politics, the projectiles from the highest prosecutor's offices began to whistle in my ears to overthrow my government."
"Since quando sono sceso in campo, the magistratura has dedicated to all Fininvest un'attenzione e un impegno degni della maggior organizzazione mafiosa."
"Since I joined, the judiciary has given Fininvest an attention and zeal worthy of the largest mafia organization."
In mid-2003, in an interview with the weekly newspaper The Spectator , he said the judges were left-leaning and crazy.
As early as 1992 and 1993, the public prosecutor 's offices in Turin and Rome came to the attention of Fininvest , initially in the course of the investigations into Tangentopoli and Mani pulite respectively ; it was about suspected bribes, falsified balance sheets and illegal party financing.
Berlusconi nevertheless stuck to his version (namely that the legal investigations should be classified after his entry into politics) and filed a complaint against the Milan courts in Brescia for the offense of attacking a constitutional organ . The investigation was dropped in 2001; the justification states:
“Risulta dall'esame degli Atti che, contrariamente a quanto si desume dalle prospettazioni del denunciante, le iniziative giudiziarie […] avevano preceduto e non seguito la decisione di 'scendere in campo'”
"Examination of the facts shows that, contrary to what the plaintiff claims, the legal initiatives preceded and did not follow the decision to enter politics."
In 1990, Berlusconi had already been convicted of perjury in the Propaganda Due case ; he remained at large on an amnesty .
In October 2009, after the Italian Constitutional Court repealed the immunity law created for him, Berlusconi described himself as the most persecuted person in world history:
"I am the most prosecuted person of all time and in the whole world."
convictions
- Unlawful aid to Mediaset: In 2004, a premium for digital decoders was introduced under the Berlusconi government. As a result, according to the judgment of July 2011, television transmission via cable and antenna was preferred to satellite transmission. The amount of funding was around 110 million euros per year. The exact amount of the repayment claim is determined by the ECJ .
- Unfair competition : On July 9, 2011, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Milan ruled that the Fininvest group had to pay its competitor CIR 560 million euros in damages. In 1991, the Berlusconi group benefited from a court decision in its takeover battle against the Italian publishing house Mondadori . In 2007 it turned out that the judge had been bribed at the time.
- Tax fraud in the Mediaset group: On October 26, 2012, a court in Milan sentenced Berlusconi to four years in prison in a trial for tax fraud and illegal slush funds. The judgment was confirmed in the second instance on May 8, 2013, and was also confirmed by the Court of Cassation on August 1, 2013, making it final. The part of the judgment that he was not allowed to hold any political offices for 5 years was referred back to the lower court.
- The Unipol trial – named after the insurance company Unipol , whose manager is involved in the case – dealt with Berlusconi's breach of official secrecy. At the end of 2005, Berlusconi – Prime Minister at the time – published a telephone recording that seemed to incriminate an opposition politician, via his brother Paolo and his newspaper “ Il Giornale ”, in order to damage him and his party. The publication took place before the parliamentary elections in Italy on 9/10. April 2006 . The prosecution has asked for a year in prison. On March 7, 2013, the court of first instance sentenced Berlusconi to one year in prison for publishing confidential information.
Convictions followed by amnesty
- Perjury in the Propaganda Due case: Berlusconi's name was found on the list of members during a search of the home of the head of the lodge, Licio Gelli , in 1981. His membership number was 1816 and his rank was that of an apprentice . Berlusconi had previously denied membership and was convicted of perjury in 1990, but benefited from an amnesty from Parliament.
- Falsification of accounts in the Villa di Macherio case : It is about the purchase of land around one of Berlusconi's villas.
acquittals due to the statute of limitations
- Three bribe payments to the financial police: The offense is statute-barred because the court of appeal attested “mitigating circumstances”.
- Accounting falsification in the Lentini case: When buying a football player, more money was paid than officially stated.
- Bribery of judges in the Lodo Mondadori case: The Court of Appeal classifies the case as "simple corruption" and not "corruption in court proceedings", so the case is statute-barred.
- Bribery of judges in the Sme-Ariosto 1 case: It's about the purchase and sale of the state-owned food company Sme.
- Bribe payment to former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi .
- $600,000 in bribes paid to David Mills in 1997. Case was dropped in February 2012 due to the statute of limitations. Although the facts of the case were clearly proven, Berlusconi was able to avoid being sentenced by delaying the proceedings with the help of his lawyers.
- Unipol trial (see convictions): on March 31, 2014, the court of appeal lifted the prison sentences imposed at first instance for Silvio Berlusconi and his brother Paolo because they had expired.
Acquittals for lack of evidence
- Bribe payment to the Financial Police
- Accounting falsification when buying the company Medusa Cinematografica
- Bribery of judges in the Sme-Ariosto case 1
- Falsification of accounts in the Sme-Ariosto case 2
- Ruby Affair : Abuse of office and encouragement of underage prostitution. It was also about the then underage Karima el-Mahroug , known as "Ruby Rubacuori" (Eng. "Ruby Heartbreaker"). She was arrested in May 2010; Berlusconi is said to have pressed for her release through confidants. In the "Ruby trial" Berlusconi was accused of having sex with underage prostitutes and abusing his office. A first-instance verdict was issued on June 24, 2013: the court sentenced him to seven years in prison without parole and a lifelong ban from holding public office.
- The reasons for the judgment were published on November 21, 2013. From this it follows that although all witnesses for the defense have confirmed Berlusconi's version, the opposite is certain on the basis of wiretapped telephone calls and witnesses are said to have been bribed. These defense witnesses from the Ruby III trial were threatened with false testimony (but see below). On June 20, 2014, the appeal proceedings against Berlusconi began at the Corte d'appello di Milano . The opening of the proceedings took place without the accused, since Berlusconi had to do community service at the same time, which he had been sentenced to do in a tax proceeding. On July 18, 2014, the appeal process ended with an acquittal. According to the court of appeal, prostitution took place in Berlusconi's house, and "Ruby" also stayed there twice. However, it cannot be proven with certainty that Berlusconi knew her age. There would be no evidence for the allegation of abuse of office. Immediately after the acquittal was signed, Enrico Tranfa, the head of the Appeals Chamber, resigned in protest at the acquittal. His two fellow judges overruled him in his decision. On 29 November 2014, prosecutors appealed the second-instance judgment to Italy's highest civil court, the Court of Cassation . The reasoning of the public prosecutor comprised 60 pages. On March 10, 2015, the court finally acquitted Berlusconi because it was not possible to prove that he knew that he was a minor. On October 21, 2021, Berlusconi and a co-defendant were acquitted of allegations of bribing witnesses and false testimony.
Charges that no longer constitute a criminal offence
- Falsification of accounts in the All Iberian case: A law introduced by the Berlusconi II government ended the process.
acquittals
- Illegal appropriation, tax fraud and accounting fraud in the Villa Macherio case : It is about the purchase of land around one of Berlusconi's villas.
Discontinued investigations
- Drug trafficking: The financial police listened to Berlusconi's phone lines for a while without finding anything suspicious.
- RAI-Fininvest price-fixing: Berlusconi was accused of promoting price-fixing in television advertising between the state-owned RAI and his Fininvest group when he was prime minister.
- Bribes paid to Treasury officials: Berlusconi is said to have paid bribes to secure a tax cut on pay -TV and get rebates.
- Mafia attacks 1992-1994: Berlusconi is suspected of having commissioned several attacks between 1992 and 1994. The investigations are based on several testimonies from mafiosi who have been arrested or have defected.
- Suspicion of external involvement in a mafia-like organization and money laundering in Palermo
- Fininvest balance sheet falsification from 1988 to 1992
- Accounting falsification of the consolidated Fininvest.
ongoing procedures
- Violation of anti-trust law in Spain and tax fraud by Berlusconi's Telecinco : the case has been postponed so as not to strain Italy-Spain relations.
- A " pentito " of the mafia , Gaspare Spatuzza , accused Berlusconi in court of having offered the Sicilian mafia a new reference system to politics with his fledgling Forza Italia party during the demise of the old party system in the early 1990s . He even expressly approved of a series of assassination attempts to destabilize the old system. In return, the mafia helped him build his business empire. Berlusconi denies these allegations.
- A bribery trial against Berlusconi began on February 11, 2014. He is said to have offered Sergio De Gregorio three million euros for a change of party. Berlusconi was sentenced to three years in prison instead of the five years the prosecutor had demanded. Berlusconi can appeal. Since the offense also expired in autumn 2015, it was assumed that he would not have to serve this prison sentence either. He did not have to serve the prison sentence.
- In 2017, Berlusconi was charged with bribing witnesses totaling €10 million in the Ruby case . 16 women are said to be involved in the case. He is said to have paid individual women hush money of 2,500 euros a month.
Conviction in August 2013 and the aftermath
In the "Mediaset trial" Berlusconi was accused of tax evasion amounting to 470 million euros via front companies in the Caribbean. For this purpose, film and television rights were sold at inflated prices. At that time, Berlusconi was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison. His lawyers announced an appeal on October 27, 2012. In early May 2013, a Milan appeals court again found Berlusconi guilty of tax evasion and sentenced him to four years in prison. He was released from three years under a 2006 sentence reduction law. Berlusconi's lawyers appealed. The highest court of appeal, the Court of Cassation in Rome, confirmed the guilty verdict on August 1, 2013, which became final. Based on the court decision, Italian police withdrew Berlusconi's passport on August 3, 2013.
After the conviction, Berlusconi allowed himself to be celebrated by his supporters, protested his innocence and accused the judges of partiality. The coalition cabinet under Prime Minister Enrico Letta , in which Berlusconi's Popolo della Libertà (PdL) is a member, came under pressure at times: on September 29, 2013, all PdL ministers offered to resign from their posts in the Letta coalition government, allegedly because of differences in the judiciary - and financial issues. However, most observers saw Berlusconi's attempt in this way to put pressure on the governing coalition to issue an amnesty for him as the true background. It turned out, however, that the majority of his party was not prepared to overthrow the Letta government. Letta did not accept the resignations; Berlusconi made a last-minute political turn and called for support of the government in a no-confidence vote. This was won by Prime Minister Enrico Letta with a large majority of 235 votes to 70 in the Italian Senate on October 3, 2013. Political observers saw the events as a clear sign of Berlusconi's weakness and loss of control over his party.
With regard to the exclusion from office, two independent procedures were running at that time, a criminal procedure (redefinition of the additional penalty for loss of office ) and an exclusion procedure before the Senate.
According to the criminal judgment of the Milan Court of Appeal of October 19, 2013, Berlusconi can no longer hold political office for two years. Initially, the verdict was not yet final, as Berlusconi had appealed. When it came into force, it resulted in the loss of all political offices of Berlusconi.
On October 4, 2013, a Senate committee recommended Berlusconi's expulsion from the Senate in view of the legally binding conviction. The Senate vote took place on November 27, 2013 and was based on the Severino law (legge Severino) of December 31, 2012, an anti-corruption law that came into force on January 5, 2013, which makes those sentenced to more than two years incarcerated ineligible , etc for the Senate. This administrative decision is made independently of the parallel criminal proceedings (ancillary sentence from the conviction); it refers to this with regard to the duration of the ineligibility (double the duration of the ancillary penalty imposed by the criminal court pursuant to Section 13 of the Act). Berlusconi called the threatened expulsion from the Senate a "colpo di stato" ( coup d'etat ).
The expulsion from the Senate was decided by a majority on November 27, 2013 with immediate effect. With that, Berlusconi also lost his political immunity . 192 senators voted for the expulsion, 114 against; two abstained.
Because of his age, Berlusconi did not have to serve a sentence. He should have served the remaining year of imprisonment under house arrest in one of his villas. As an alternative to house arrest, Berlusconi also had the option of serving his sentence through a year of community service (social service). On November 23, 2013, he told supporters that he and his country would be ridiculed if he were forced to "clean toilets" and demanded his pardon from Italian President Napolitano. However, according to the Code of Criminal Procedure (Art. 681 codice di procedura penale ), a pardon requires a petition for clemency – to date, the President has not received such a petition (Berlusconi would see this as an admission of guilt). Berlusconi on November 22, 2013: “I am not asking for mercy; it is up to Napolitano to grant it to me.” Napolitano publicly declined a pardon on November 24. In view of the alternative between house arrest and social work, Berlusconi finally decided on social work. According to a court order in April 2014, he had to do this work once a week for four consecutive hours in a senior citizens' facility of the Fondazione Istituto Sacra Famiglia in Cesano Boscone . According to the head of the senior citizens ' facility, Berlusconi had to look after dementia and Alzheimer's patients there from May 9, 2014. According to the clergyman responsible for the facility, this social work had already been done before him by people with alcohol problems and pedophiles . He was forbidden from contact with criminals and drug addicts. With the exception of three days a week in Rome (Tuesday to Thursday), when he was able to carry out his political work, he was not allowed to leave the Lombardy region and then had to stay at his residence at night between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. The regulation, compliance with which was monitored by an employee of the competent court and the police, was in effect until March 8, 2015.
On May 12, 2018, a court in Milan lifted the ban on holding political office, which should have lasted until 2019.
honors
- In 1977 Berlusconi was appointed Cavaliere del Lavoro by President Giovanni Leone because of his extensive construction activities , an honorary title which he lost again as a convicted criminal through conviction in the "Mediaset trial".
- In 1991 he was appointed doctor honoris causa by the University of Calabria .
- In 2002 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland .
- In 2002 he received the Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold for services to the Republic of Austria .
- In 2003 he received the Anti Defamation League 's Distinguished Statesman Award .
- In 2005 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique .
- In 2005 he was made a Knight of the Order of Saint Pius .
Others
Berlusconi also caused a stir with his cosmetic surgeries . In January 2004, for example, he only returned to the limelight more than a month after probably having his wrinkles removed in a beauty clinic in December 2003. In August 2004, he had a hair transplant on his scalp at a beauty clinic in Ferrara . Since then, he has not appeared in public without makeup, so pictures of Berlusconi without makeup attracted public attention in early 2014.
Also in 2004, Berlusconi released a CD of songs in the Neapolitan dialect that he and Mariano Apicella had composed.
The Pizza Berlusconi was created in response to a derogatory remark by Berlusconi on Finnish cuisine .
At the end of March 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy , Berlusconi donated a total of 10 million euros to build new intensive care units in Milan . He was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia in early September 2020 after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 . Due to heart problems, after a fall in his house and the late effects of Corona, Berlusconi was hospitalized again in spring 2021.
Literature (selection)
German
- Stefano Benni , Andrea Camilleri , Umberto Eco : Berlusconi's Italy - Italy vs. Berlusconi . Verlag Klaus Wagenbach , 2002, ISBN 978-3-8031-2450-0 .
- Dirk Feustel: One Man Show: Silvio Berlusconi and the Media , 2007, Tectum Verlag , ISBN 978-3-8288-9446-4 .
- Paul Ginsborg : Berlusconi. Political model of the future or an Italian special way? ,Wagenbach, Berlin 2005 ISBN 978-3-8031-2497-5 .
- Damian Grasmück: The Forza Italia Silvio Berlusconi: Birth, Development, Government Activity and Structures of a Charismatic Party , 2005, Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-631-53839-1 .
- Alexander Grasse : Italian conditions 2004. Continuity and change in the political system of the "second republic" , in: From politics and contemporary history , 2004, bpb , Bonn,
- Udo Gümpel/ Ferrucio Pinotti: Berlusconi Zampano. The career of a brilliant trick player , Riemann, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-570-50071-2
- Jörn Pissowotzki: The Populist Silvio Berlusconi . In: Nikolaus Werz (ed.): Populism: Populists overseas and in Europe (= analyses. Vol. 79). Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3727-3 , pp. 127–143.
- Jens Renner : The Berlusconi case. Right-wing politics and media dictatorship , 2001, Verlag Werkstatt, ISBN 978-3-89533-116-9 .
- Mario Rossi: Lasting Values: The Political Merits of Silvio Berlusconi , 2011, ISBN 978-3-8316-1583-4 .
- Gian Enrico Rusconi: Media democracy and its limits - using the example of Berlusconi's Italy , in: From politics and contemporary history, 2004, bpb , Bonn,
- Gian Enrico Rusconi, Thomas Schlemmer , Hans Woller (eds.): Berlusconi in power - The politics of the Italian centre-right governments in comparative perspective . Oldenbourg, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-59783-7 .
- Beppe Severgnini : Survive with Berlusconi , Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 2011 ISBN 978-3-89667-446-3 .
- Alexander Stille : Citizen Berlusconi. , 2006, Munich: Verlag CH Beck , ISBN 3-406-52955-0 . ( Review in: seepunkte 6 (2006), No. 6 )
- Stefan Wallisch : rise and fall of telecracy. Silvio Berlusconi, Romano Prodi and Politics in the Television Age , 1997, Böhlau Verlag, Vienna, ISBN 978-3-205-98568-6 .
- Silvio Berlusconi in the Munzinger archive ( start of article freely available)
English
- Tobias Jones: The dark heart of Italy , 2003, Faber and Faber, London, ISBN 0-571-21424-X
- Paul Ginsborg : Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony , Verso Books, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84467-541-8
- David Lane: Berlusconi's shadow , 2004, Penguin Books , London, ISBN 0-14-101770-8
- Charles Richards: The new Italians , Penguin Books, 1995, London, ISBN 0-14-017109-6
- Carlo Ruzza, Laura Balbo: Italian Populism and the Trajectories of Two Leaders: Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi . In: Ruth Wodak , Majid KhosraviNik, Brigitte Mral (eds.): Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse . Bloomsbury, London et al. 2013, ISBN 978-1-78093-343-6 , p. 163 ff.
Italian
- Giovanni Sartori : Il Sultanato . April 2009, Laterza, ISBN 978-88-420-8914-8 .
- Elio Veltri and Marco Travaglio : L'odore dei soldi. Origini e misterii delle fortune di Silvio Berlusconi , 2001, Editori Riuniti.
- Marco Travaglio and Peter Gomez : Lo chiamavano impunità. La vera storia del caso Sme e tutto quello che Berlusconi nasconde all'Italia e all'Europa , 2003, Editori Riuniti.
- Marco Travaglio : Montanelli and the Cavaliere. Storia di un grande e di un piccolo uomo , 2004, Garzanti Libri.
Movie
- documentaries
- Citizen Berlusconi - The Prime Minister and the Press , 2003
- Viva Zapatero! by Sabina Guzzanti, 2005
- Quando c'era Silvio by Beppe Cremagnani, Enrico Deaglio and Ruben Oliva, 2006
- The Berlusconi file - Berlusconi's relations with the Masonic secret lodge P2, video on YouTube
- by Maria-Rosa Bobbi and Michael Busse, ZDF 2010
- Belluscone – Why Italians love Berlusconi , 2014
- My Way - The Rise And Fall Of Silvio Berlusconi , by Antongiulio Panizzi, 2016
- feature films
- Bye bye Berlusconi! (ital. Buonanotte Topolino ) by Jan Henrik Stahlberg , Germany/Italy 2006
- The Italian (ital. Il caimano ) by and with Nanni Moretti , 2006
- Loro - The Seduced by Paolo Sorrentino , 2018
web links
- Silvio Berlusconi in the European Parliament 's MEPs database
- Silvio Berlusconi on senato.it Senato della Repubblica (Italian)
- Berlusconi, Silvio. In: Encyclopedia on line. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
- Silvio Berlusconi. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . (English).
- Literature by and about Silvio Berlusconi in the German National Library catalogue
- Literature by and about Silvio Berlusconi in the bibliographic database WorldCat
- Norm entry in the Opac of the Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale (SBN)
- Silvio Berlusconi , in: International Biographical Archive 20/2012 of May 15, 2012, in the Munzinger Archive ( start of article freely available)
itemizations
- ^ a b Forbes February 15, 2021
- ^ a b Silvio Berlusconi: Ban on former PM holding office scrapped. BBC News, 12 May 2018, accessed 12 May 2018 (English).
- ↑ Nikos Tzermias: Berlusconi plunges Italy into chaos . Article in the nzz.ch portal , retrieved on October 4, 2013
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: Italy: The end of the Berlusconi era . Article from October 4, 2013 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on October 4, 2013
- ↑ West German newspaper: Silvio Berlusconi: The billionaire in focus. Retrieved August 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, DER SPIEGEL: Italy: Silvio Berlusconi is working on his comeback - not only for the European elections - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved August 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Spiegel online of May 4, 2009
- ↑ Veronica Lario vs. Silvio Berlusconi The Eternal War of the Roses , accessed December 17, 2012
- ↑ spiegel.de from May 11, 2010
- ↑ spiegel.de November 26, 2009
- ↑ Silvio Berlusconi and Veronica Lario hanno divorziato. Tribunale scioglie matrimonio , accessed 24 June 2018.
- ↑ provincia-di-napoli , accessed December 18, 2012
- ↑ Berlusconi is engaged , retrieved December 17, 2012
- ↑ Silvio-Story ( Memento of 22 September 2012 on WebCite ) (PDF file; 13.84 MB) retrieved 17 December 2012
- ↑ Expensive separation: Berlusconi pays ex-girlfriend 20 million euros plus maintenance. Retrieved 27 July 2020 .
- ↑ Kathrin Ackermann-Pojtinger, Berlusconi's Mediocracy and Italian Television History, Romanische Studien 3, 2016, online .
- ↑ Tobias Piller: A new stress test for Berlusconi's Holding Fininvest . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 10, 2009, p. 17
- ↑ Ovopedia, la nuova enciclopedia di Berlusconi: video clip per riscrivere la storia ( memento of September 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Birgit Schönau : A AC Milan's dubious new owners . In: sueddeutsche.de . ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed 21 August 2018]).
- ↑ Silvio Berlusconi buys Monza Calcio
- ↑ The lodge that controlled Italy, July 20, 2010, orf.at
- ↑ "Banks, stock exchanges, Berlusconi", Telepolis/Heise, October 1, 2010
- ↑ Italy's Right Questions History , Neues Deutschland, August 4, 2009
- ↑ The attack in Bologna continues to cause political tension , NZZ, July 31, 2010
- ↑ Us again? , GWR 261, February 2004
- ↑ Legge 30 luglio 2002, n. 189 ( full text )
- ↑ Corriere della Sera : Desirable and undesired migrants
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de / Julius Müller-Meiningen May 17, 2010: Italy - mood against the foreign
- ↑ Corriere della Sera, July 25, 2008
- ↑ "Refugee camps resemble concentration camps" , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 20, 2009
- ↑ Foreclosure criticized ( Memento of May 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) – Junge Welt, May 22, 2009
- ↑ Der Spiegel, issue no. 31, July 27, 2009, p. 48
- ↑ Corriere della Sera : More boats pushed back. Criticism from the Bishops' Conference
- ↑ Sanatoria badanti, scatta la fase due: da martedì si presentano le domande ( memento of August 2, 2012 in the archive.today web archive )
- ↑ "Berlusconi sees himself as a victim of hate campaign" , Welt Online , December 14, 2009
- ↑ Report in Corriere della Sera , December 14, 2009
- ↑ a b cf. Silvio Berlusconi . In: International Biographical Archive 18/2010 from May 4, 2010 (la), supplemented by news from MA-Journal up to week 46/2010 (accessed on December 13, 2010 via Munzinger Online )
- ↑ Berlusconi survives vote of no confidence in Spiegel Online , December 14, 2010 (accessed December 14, 2010)
- ↑ spiegel.de May 30, 2011 / Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: Election debacle: Shamed Italians slap Berlusconi
- ↑ Claudio Tito: E il Cavaliere annuncia il ritiro - La Repubblica
- ↑ Tobias Piller: Trichet and Draghi's draconian demands on Italy . secret letter. In: FAZ . September 30, 2011.
- ↑ www.corriere.it: Il documento segreto della Bce: ridurre gli stipendi pubblici
- ↑ spiegel.de: Newspaper reveals ECB austerity dictate to Berlusconi
- ↑ Spiegel Online of August 7, 2011: Intervention in the markets: Trichet and Co. want to prevent a stock market crash
- ↑ Wolfgang Jaschensky, Michael König: Prime Minister before his resignation. How Italy can be healed by Berlusconi . Article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on November 9, 2011.
- ↑ Official communication of the Quirinale Palace: Consultazioni al Quirinale a seguito delle dimissioni del Governo Berlusconi . November 12, 2011.
- ↑ Berlusconi wants to run again. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 6, 2012, retrieved December 6, 2012 .
- ↑ Fabio Ghelli: The desperate drumbeat of Silvio Berlusconi Zeit Online, December 7, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
- ↑ Berlusconi wants to be prime minister again Zeit Online, December 7, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
- ↑ FAZ: Berlusconi convicted for the first time
- ↑ spiegel.de: Despite a guilty verdict: Berlusconi remains in the game |
- ↑ Fabian Reinbold: Minister resignations in Italy: Berlusconi's ugly plan . Article from September 29, 2013 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on September 29, 2013.
- ↑ See: Legge Severino , article in the Italian language Wikipedia
- ↑ Vote on Berlusconi's expulsion from the Senate is approaching , article from September 10, 2013 in the derstandard.at portal , retrieved on September 26, 2013.
- ↑ It's getting lonely around Berlusconi ( Memento from October 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), article from October 1, 2013 in the tagesschau.de portal , retrieved on October 1, 2013.
- ↑ Fabian Reinbold: Government crisis in Italy: uprising against the "Cavaliere". Article from October 1, 2013 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on October 1, 2013.
- ↑ Jörg Bremer: The Fantastic Five . Article from October 1, 2013 in the portal faz.net , retrieved on October 1, 2013.
- ↑ Enrico Letta puts the vote of confidence on Wednesday . Article from September 29, 2013 in the welt.de portal , retrieved on September 30, 2013.
- ↑ Letta before decisive showdown . Article from October 1, 2013 in the handelsblatt.com portal , retrieved on October 1, 2013.
- ↑ Rome sinks into chaos ( memento from September 28, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), article from September 28, 2013 in the online portal tagesspiegel.it ( Die Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung ), retrieved on September 28, 2013.
- ↑ Mutiny against Berlusconi , article from October 1, 2013, retrieved from the nzz.ch portal on October 1, 2013.
- ↑ spiegel.de: Italy's government crisis: Berlusconi's MPs want to express their confidence in Letta
- ↑ Letta respinge dimissioni ministri Pdl , notification of October 1, 2013 in the ansa.it portal , retrieved on October 1, 2013.
- ↑ Fabian Reinbold: Italy's Prime Minister Letta: Berlusconi's conqueror . Article from October 2, 2013 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on October 3, 2013.
- ↑ Letta regains confidence. Article from October 2, 2013 in the n-tv.de portal , retrieved on October 3, 2013.
- ↑ Nikos Tzermias: Capitulation of Berlusconi . Article from October 3, 2013 in the nzz.ch portal , retrieved on October 3, 2013.
- ↑ Michael Braun: Berlusconi relies on blackmail. Article from September 26, 2013 in the taz.de portal , retrieved on September 26, 2013.
- ↑ Political chaos in Italy: Berlusconi's ministers leave government , article from September 28, 2013 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on September 28, 2013
- ↑ FAZ September 19, 2013: Berlusconi loses first Senate vote
- ↑ Corriere della Sera of November 17, 2013, p. 5.
- ↑ Il Fatto Quotidiano: Judgment text in Italian
- ↑ Alessandro Sala: Il Senato ha votato la decadenza di Berlusconi. In: Corriere della Sera , 27 November 2013 (Italian).
- ↑ Christian Rath: Hearing before the Human Court: Berlusconi vs. Italy . In: The daily newspaper: taz . November 22, 2017, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed May 27, 2019]).
- ↑ Decreto Legislativo 31 dicembre 2012, n. 235. Testo unico delle disposizioni in materia di incandidabi-lità e divieto di ricoprire cariche elettive e di Governo conseguenti a sentenze definitive di condanna per delitti non colposi, a norma dell'articolo 1, comma 63, della legge 6 novembre 2012, n. 190. Promulgated in the Gazzatta Ufficiale of January 4, 2013, in force since January 5, 2013 pursuant to article 18, paragraph 1 of the Law
- ↑ La Repubblica: Text of the Legge Severino in Italian
- ↑ Homepage of the Italian Government Text of the Constitution in Italian
- ↑ Judgment in Italy: Court lifts Berlusconi's ban from office . In: Mirror Online . May 12, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed May 27, 2019]).
- ↑ The new man for Italy , spiegel.de , January 23, 2019.
- ↑ Simon Binz: Silvio Berlusconi makes it into the EU Parliament. Retrieved May 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Matthias Rüb / FAZ January 12, 2022: Berlusconi threatens Draghi with coalition break
- ↑ FAZ.net January 15, 2022: Next move in the duel Berlusconi against Draghi
- ↑ www.repubblica.it: "Patto per il Quirinale: vogliamo un presidente super partes, non un capo politico divisivo"
- ↑ Centre-right endorses Berlusconi as head of state. In: Time Online. January 15, 2022, retrieved January 17, 2022 .
- ↑ Anything goes! European People's Party supports Berlusconi's candidacy for President. In: brennerbasisdemokratie.eu. January 17, 2022, retrieved January 22, 2022 .
- ↑ European People's Party is for Berlusconi. In: Rai South Tyrol . January 15, 2022, retrieved January 23, 2022 .
- ↑ Fabio Calcagni: Salvini già pronto a scaricare Berlusconi sul Quirinale: “Faremo proposta convincente, Silvio faccia i suoi conti”. In: ilriformista.it. January 17, 2022, retrieved January 18, 2022 (Italian).
- ↑ Emanuele Lauria: Salvini molla Berlusconi: "In arrivo per il Colle una proposta della Lega". In: repubblica.it. January 17, 2022, retrieved January 18, 2022 (Italian).
- ↑ Paolo Decrestina, Cesare Zapperi: Quirinale, passo indietro di Berlusconi: «Rinuncio per responsabilità nazionale. Ora proposta condivisa del centrodestra». In: corriere.it. 22 January 2022, retrieved 22 January 2022 (Italian).
- ↑ Matthias Rüb : The resistance was greater than Berlusconi's ambition . FAZ.net January 23, 2022.
- ↑ Matthias Rüb (FAZ): faz.net January 15, 2022.
- ↑ Why Italy Voted Silvio Berlusconi: 'The Lesser Evil' ( May 2, 2008 memento at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: Italian-Libyan relations: hand kiss for the dictator . Article from February 25, 2011 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on November 6, 2013
- ↑ spiegel.de: End of immunity: Berlusconi wedges against Italy's president
- ↑ Example (2013): Berlusconi's taunts: "This morning I was after one of my secretaries"
- ↑ Berlusconi, nuove offese a Schulz: "Per i tedesci i lager mai esistiti". La Replica: "Lui sinonimo di odio e lite" . Article of April 26, 2014 in the lastampa.it portal , accessed on April 26, 2014
- ↑ Berlusconi tirade: "For Germans, the concentration camps never existed" . Article from April 26, 2014 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on April 26, 2014
- ↑ Berlusconi attacks Martin Schulz again . Article from April 26, 2014 in the portal wienerzeitung.at , retrieved on April 26, 2014
- ↑ spiegel.de: Berlusconi tirade: "The concentration camps never existed for Germans"
- ↑ ansa.it: Schulz: Berlusconi è sinonimo di odio, invidia e lite
- ↑ spiegel.de: After the concentration camp derailment: Berlusconi declares himself a friend of the Germans
- ↑ faz.net September 11, 2003: Berlusconi defends Mussolini
- ↑ www.spectator.co.uk: Why being called mad by Berlusconi is not necessarily an insult
- ↑ www.guardian.co.uk
- ↑ spiegel.de January 27, 2013: Holocaust Remembrance Day: Berlusconi raves about Mussolini
- ↑ Mussolini's Legacy Zeit, February 10, 2013
- ↑ Berlusconi draws Nazi comparison: "My children feel like the Jews under Hitler" . Article from November 6, 2013 in the focus.de portal , retrieved on November 6, 2013
- ↑ Andrea Bachstein: Everything depends on his word . Article from November 16, 2013 in the portal sueddeutsche.de , retrieved on November 16, 2013
- ↑ oe24.at "scandal about Berlusconi's sexist statements"
- ↑ Der Spiegel 11/2009, p. 116: Girls, Power and Mamma
- ↑ derStandard.at Berlusconi renounces showgirls
- ↑ stern.de of May 26, 2009: What threatens the "Berlusconi system" ( Memento of August 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ welt.de: Die Zeit 20/2009 from May 14, 2009: Politics as porn
- ↑ Spiegel.de
- ↑ La Stampa Caso Noemi, la vicenda ricostruita dai cronisti ( Memento of August 31, 2009 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Spiegel Online state affair: Berlusconi wants to clarify marital crisis before Parliament [1]
- ↑ Spiegel Online: Vacation on Berlusconi's estate: Czech ex-prime minister annoyed by nude photos
- ↑ Spiegel Online Berlusconi in trouble: "I have never paid a woman" [2]
- ↑ La Repubblica Berlusconi, Chigi non commenta verbali Tarantini su fest reuters.com September 29, 2009
- ↑ Spiegel Online Casanova Berlusconi: lewd whisper on the phone [3]
- ↑ nzz.ch from October 31, 2010 "Bunga Bunga" – Italy's new catchy tune
- ↑ Spiegel.de from October 31, 2010 scandal about escort girl: Berlusconi and the bunga-bunga
- ↑ Spiegel.de from November 2, 2010 Shameful Berlusconi: parties, goofs, embarrassments
- ↑ Rainer Mayerhofer: Berlusconi trial adjourned at Wiener Zeitung , April 6, 2011 (retrieved on November 21, 2013).
- ↑ Dirk Schümer : One year in prison for Berlusconi: the final verdict has not yet been pronounced faz.net, October 26, 2012, retrieved on October 27, 2012.
- ↑ Berlusconi's lawyers announce an appeal against the verdict at welt.de, October 27, 2012, retrieved on October 27, 2012.
- ↑ a b c spiegel.de March 4, 2013: Accusation in the "Ruby" trial: "Systematic prostitution" in Berlusconi's villa
- ↑ Suspicion of bribery of senators: new investigations against Berlusconi spiegel.de, March 4, 2013.
- ↑ Elio Veltri and Marco Travaglio: The smell of money. Origins and Secrets of Silvio Berlusconi's Fortune . 2001, Editori Riuniti, ISBN 88-359-5007-4
- ↑ Nick Tosches : Business with the Vatican. The Sindona Affair. Munich 1987. ISBN 3-426-03970-2
- ↑ Spiegel.de (from June 29, 2010)
- ↑ Sentenza Dell'Utri (PDF file; 1.73 MB)
- ↑ Italian judiciary sees "pact" between Berlusconi and the Mafia ( Memento of September 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), article of September 5, 2013 in the portal thueringer-allgemeine.de , retrieved on September 5, 2013
- ↑ Giuseppe Pipitone: Mafia, i giudici: "Dell'Utri mediatore del patto tra Berlusconi e Cosa nostra" , article of 5 September 2013 in the ilfattoquotidiano.it portal (Italian), retrieved 5 September 2013
- ↑ Berlusconi paid Mafia protection money zeit.de, April 25, 2012.
- ↑ Silvio Berlusconi in Il Giornale , January 30, 2005, p.5 Quoted in the book Le mille balle blu by Marco Travaglio and Peter Gomez
- ↑ Bill Emmott ( December 18, 2010 memento at the Internet Archive ), July 30, 2003
- ↑ Freedom of the press, 2004. A global survey of media independence, ISBN 0-7425-3648-3 .
- ↑ Italy – 2004 Annual report ( Memento of 24 February 2008 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ La Repubblica, Effetto governo per Berlusconi: patrimonio familiare triplicato [4]
- ↑ Cf. Art. 2621 Italian Civil Code
- ↑ Berlusconi loses legal immunity - Italy - derStandard.at › International
- ↑ Constitutional judges overturn Berlusconi's immunity Spiegel-Online, retrieved on October 7, 2009
- ↑ Why being called mad by Berlusconi is not necessarily an insult
- ↑ Italy: Berlusconi sees himself as the greatest judicial victim of all time - SPIEGEL ONLINE - news - politics
- ↑ Berlusconi's company has to pay back millions July 28, 2011, Spiegel Online.
- ↑ Berlusconi group has to pay 560 million euros to archrival , July 9, 2011, Spiegel Online
- ↑ Zeit.de: Berlusconi sentenced to four years in prison ( Memento of June 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), retrieved on October 26, 2012.
- ^ "Berlusconi appeals against sentence in Supreme Court". derstandard.at , 9 May 2013, retrieved 24 May 2013 .
- ↑ Italy's highest court: Berlusconi sentenced - ban on office to be renegotiated. In: Mirror Online . August 1, 2013, retrieved June 9, 2018 .
- ↑ Berlusconi sentenced to one year in prison Spiegel Online, March 7, 2013
- ↑ spiegel.de March 7th, 2013: Jail sentence for Berlusconi: His scandals catch up with him again
- ↑ Berlusconi seeks amnesty on his own behalf , June 18, 2008, NZZ Online.
- ↑ Corruption trial: Court closes proceedings against Berlusconi , February 25, 2012, Spiegel Online.
- ↑ Cut immunity law: Italy's constitutional authorities embarrass Berlusconi , January 13, 2011, Spiegel Online.
- ↑ Berlusconi: Italy's ex-PM jail sentence lifted . Spiegel Online, March 31, 2014
- ↑ Berlusconi's sex trial is stuck. In: Focus Online, June 6, 2011.
- ^ " Berlusconi's lawyers announce appeal against verdict ", sueddeutsche.de, October 27, 2012.
- ↑ LEO Dictionary Italian-German Herzensbrecher [5]
- ↑ Sueddeutsche.de: Berlusconi sentenced to seven years in prison
- ↑ Spiegel.de: Court sentences Berlusconi to seven years in prison , retrieved on June 24, 2013.
- ↑ spiegel.de: Ruby trial: Court publishes evidence against Berlusconi
- ↑ Corriere della Sera
- ↑ Corriere della Sera
- ↑ Corriere della Sera
- ↑ Corriere della Sera of November 22, 2013, p. 6
- ↑ Corriere della Sera of November 23, 2013, p. 10; dismissal - postponement possible; Berlusconi will defend himself in plenary
- ↑ tagesschau.de: Berlusconi acquitted in bribery trial. Retrieved October 21, 2021 .
- ↑ Mafia killer raises serious allegations against Berlusconi. In: Echo of the Times, December 4, 2009.
- ↑ Also in court for bribery. (No longer available online.) tagesschau.de, October 23, 2013, archived from the original on January 9, 2014 ; retrieved December 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to imprisonment, but will probably not go to prison. spiegel.de, July 9, 2015, retrieved December 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Berlusconi escapes jail due to statute of limitations. Retrieved August 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Former Italy PM Berlusconi to stand trial in sex bribery case . In: Reuters . January 28, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
- ^ "Berlusconi trial: The mysterious death of the most important witness". Der Spiegel , March 16, 2019, retrieved March 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: prison or comeback. In: Spiegel Online January 31, 2012.
- ↑ Prosecution calls for Berlusconi to be jailed for several years. In: Focus Money, June 18, 2012.
- ↑ Berlusconi sentenced to four years in prison , Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 26, 2012
- ↑ Berlusconi's lawyers announce appeal against verdict , Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 27, 2012
- ↑ Tax fraud: Court of appeal upholds prison sentence against Berlusconi in Spiegel Online, May 8, 2013 (accessed May 8, 2013).
- ^ "Ultimate demands for pardon after Berlusconi verdict: The tone has become sharper in Italy" . Article from August 3, 2013 in the nzz.ch portal , retrieved on August 4, 2013.
- ↑ Jan-Christoph Kitzler: PDL MPs announce resignation: government alliance in Italy wobbles. (No longer available online.) tagesschau.de, August 2, 2013, archived from the original on August 4, 2013 ; retrieved 3 August 2013 .
- ↑ a b Jan-Christoph Kitzler: Government crisis in Italy: All Berlusconi ministers resign. (No longer available online.) tagesschau.de, September 29, 2013, archived from the original on September 30, 2013 ; retrieved October 5, 2013 .
- ↑ James Walston: Silvio Berlusconi's long goodbye. BBC News, 2 October 2013, accessed 5 October 2013 (English).
- ↑ Il Fatto Quotidiano: Judgment text in Italian
- ↑ Italy's highest court: Berlusconi sentenced - ban on office to be renegotiated. Spiegel online, August 1, 2013, retrieved August 1, 2013 .
- ↑ Italian Senate panel recommends Berlusconi expulsion. BBC News, 4 October 2013, accessed 5 October 2013 (English).
- ↑ La Repubblica: Text of the legge Severino in Italian
- ↑ Corriere della sera
- ↑ Corriere della sera
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 27, 2013: Italian Senate excludes Berlusconi
- ↑ Berlusconi, 192 a 114: il Senato respinge il primo odg contrario alla decadenza.
- ↑ After conviction for tax fraud: Berlusconi wants to be pardoned . Article from November 23, 2013 in the portal rp-online.de , retrieved on November 23, 2013
- ↑ Italy: Berlusconi expects pardon from President Napolitano . Article from November 23, 2013 in the spiegel.de portal , retrieved on November 23, 2013
- ↑ Corriere della Sera , November 23, 2013, p. 6. Berlusconi: «La decadenza è un colpo di stato. Io non chiedo la grace, me la dia Napolitano»
- ↑ spiegel.de: Italy: Berlusconi demands pardon from President Napolitano
- ↑ spiegel.de: President rejects pardon for Berlusconi
- ↑ Grazia, il Quirinale gela Berlusconi "Non ci sono condizioni per intervenire"
- ↑ Sentenza Mediaset: Berlusconi andrà ad assistere gli anziani per un anno . Article of April 15, 2014 in the corriere.it portal , retrieved on April 28, 2014
- ↑ Claudio Sardo: La fine di un'epoca ( Memento of August 5, 2013 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Heiner Hug: Heavy blow for Berlusconi . Article from August 1, 2013 in the journal21.ch portal , retrieved on August 4, 2013
- ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.59 MB)
- ↑ Berlusconi To Receive Award From Jewish Group , Associated Press, September 18, 2003.
- ↑ Diarium Romanae Curiae, p. 89 facsimile, 2.bp.blogspot.com, accessed March 16, 2019. – Awarded July 11, 2005.
- ↑ Maria Corbi: Berlusconi sul “Sunday Times” senza trucco . Article of January 24, 2014 in the lastampa.it portal (Italian), retrieved on April 27, 2014
- ↑ Coronavirus: From Armani to Berlusconi, VIPs donate to hospitals , kurier.at, retrieved on March 23, 2020
- ↑ Der Spiegel : Berlusconi with bilateral pneumonia in the hospital. Retrieved September 4, 2020 .
- ↑ spiegel.de May 11, 2021
- ↑ Italian conditions 2004 - from politics and contemporary history (B 35-36/2004)
- ↑ Media democracy and its limits - using the example of Berlusconi's Italy - from politics and contemporary history (B 35-36/2004)
Alcide De Gasperi (1st-7th) | Giuseppe Pella | Aminotore Fanfani | Mario Scelba | Antonio Segni | Adone Zoli | Aminotore Fanfani (2nd) | Antonio Segni (2nd) | Fernando Tambroni | Amintore Fanfani (3rd-4th) | Giovanni Leone | Aldo Moro (1st-3rd) | Giovanni Leone (2nd) | Mariano Rumor (1st-3rd) | Emilio Colombo | Giulio Andreotti (1st-2nd) | Mariano Rumor (4th-5th) | Aldo Moro (4th-5th) | Giulio Andreotti (3rd-5th) | Francesco Cossiga (1st-2nd) | Arnaldo Forlani | Giovanni Spadolini (1st–2nd) | Aminotore Fanfani (5th) | Bettino Craxi (1st-2nd) | Aminotore Fanfani (6th) | Giovanni Goria | Ciriaco De Mita | Giulio Andreotti (6th-7th) | Giuliano Amato | Carlo Azeglio Ciampi | Silvio Berlusconi | Lamberto Dini | Romano Prodi | Massimo D'Alema (1st-2nd) | Giuliano Amato (2nd) | Silvio Berlusconi (2nd-3rd) | Romano Prodi (2nd) | Silvio Berlusconi (4th) | Mario Monti | Enrico Letta | Matteo Renzi | Paolo Gentiloni | Giuseppe Conte (1st–2nd) | Mario Draghi
Alcide De Gasperi | Pietro Nenni | Carlo Sforza (1st-4th) | Alcide De Gasperi (2nd-3rd) | Giuseppe Pella | Attilio Piccioni (1st-2nd) | Gaetano Martino (1st-2nd) | Giuseppe Pella (2nd) | Aminotore Fanfani | Giuseppe Pella (3rd) | Antonio Segni (1st-3rd) | Aminotore Fanfani (2nd) | Attilio Piccioni (3rd–4th) | Giuseppe Saragat (1st–2nd) | Aldo Moro | Aminotore Fanfani (3rd) | Aldo Moro (2nd) | Aminotore Fanfani (4th) | Giuseppe Medici | Pietro Nenni (2nd) | Aldo Moro (3rd-6th) | Giuseppe Medici (2nd) | Aldo Moro (7th-8th) | Mariano Rumor (1st-2nd) | Arnaldo Forlani (1st-3rd) | Franco Maria Malfatti | Attilio Ruffini | Emilio Colombo (1st-5th) | Giulio Andreotti (1st-5th) | Gianni De Michelis (1st-2nd) | Vincenzo Scotti | Giuliano Amato | Emilio Colombo (6th) | Beniamino Andreatta | Leopoldo Elijah | Antonio Martino | Susanna Agnelli | Lamberto Dini (1st-4th) | Giuliano Amato (2nd)| Renato Ruggiero | Silvio Berlusconi | Franco Frattini | Gianfranco Fini (1st-2nd) | Massimo D'Alema | Franco Frattini (2nd) | Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata | Mario Monti | Emma Bonino | Federica Mogherini | Paolo Gentiloni | Angelino Alfano | Enzo Moavero Milanese | Luigi Di Maio (1st-2nd)
Silvio Berlusconi (FI) | Antonio Martino (FI) | Roberto Maroni (LN) | Alfredo Biondi (UdC) | Cesare Previti (FI) | Giancarlo Pagliarini (LN) | Giulio Tremonti (P.S.) | Lamberto Dini | Adriana Poli Bortone (AN) | Roberto Maria Radice (FI) | Publio Fiori (AN) | Vito Gnutti (LN) | Giorgio Bernini (FI) | Giuseppe Tatarella (AN) | Raffaele Costa (UDC) | Clemente Mastella (CCD) | Domenico Fisichella (AN) | Altero Matteoli (AN) | Francesco D'Onofrio (CCD) | Stefano Podesta (FI)
Silvio Berlusconi (FI) | Renato Ruggiero (until January 6, 2002) | Franco Frattini (FI, from 14 November 2002 to 18 November 2004) | Gianfranco Fini (AN, from November 18, 2004) | Claudio Scajola (FI, until July 3, 2002) | Giuseppe Pisanu (FI, from July 3, 2002) | Roberto Castelli (LN) | Antonio Martino (FI) | Giulio Tremonti (FI, until July 3, 2004) | Domenico Siniscalco (from July 16, 2004) | Antonio Marzano (FI) | Pietro Lunardi | Gianni Alemanno (AN) | Altero Matteoli (AN) | Roberto Maroni (LN) | Letizia Moratti (FI) | Giuliano Urbani (FI) | Girolamo Sirchia | Maurizio Gasparri (AN)
Silvio Berlusconi (FI) | Gianfranco Fini (AN) | Giuseppe Pisanu (FI) | Roberto Castelli (LN) | Antonio Martino (FI) | Domenico Siniscalco (until September 22, 2005) | Giulio Tremonti (FI, from September 22, 2005 to May 8, 2006) | Claudio Scajola (FI) | Pietro Lunardi (FI) | Gianni Alemanno (AN) | Altero Matteoli (AN) | Roberto Maroni (LN) | Letizia Moratti (FI) | Rocco Buttiglione (UdC) | Francesco Storace (AN, until March 10, 2006) | Mario Landolfi (AN)
Silvio Berlusconi (PdL) | Franco Frattini (PdL) | Roberto Maroni (LN) | Angelino Alfano (PdL, until July 27, 2011) | Nitto Francesco Palma (PdL, from July 28, 2011) | Giulio Tremonti (PdL) | Claudio Scajola (PdL, until May 4, 2010) | Paolo Romani (PdL, from October 4, 2010) | Ignazio La Russa (PdL) | Maurizio Sacconi (PdL) | Ferruccio Fazio (PdL) | Altero Matteoli (PdL) | Mariastella Gelmini (PdL) | Stefania Prestigiacomo (PdL) | Luca Zaia (LN, until April 16, 2010) | Giancarlo Galan (PdL, from April 16) | Saverio Romano (IR/PeT, from March 23, 2011) | Sandro Bondi (PdL, until March 23, 2011)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Berlusconi, Silvio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian politician, member of the Camera, MEP and entrepreneur |
| BIRTH DATE | September 29, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milan |