Silvio Berlusconi on Monday gave a barely concealed ultimatum to his coalition partners. After days of meetings, over proposed tax cuts, where he has met opposition from Alleanza Nazionale and UDC, Berlusconi, with as much rhetoric as he could muster (which of course was plenty), sent a letter, or as he put it a manifesto, […]

Let’s be clear: it was out of wounded national pride, the most motivating of human/simian emotions, that I watched the final of Italy’s terrible ‘reality’ show L’isola dei famosi* (that’s not to suggest that it’s any more terrible than similar anglophone versions)last Friday night. It was less out of a desire to see who would […]

It’s scarcely mentioned outside of Italy that there are actually some fine journalists working for Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset. Under the directorship of Enrico Mentana, the news broadcasts of Canale Cinque, have by and large maintained an impartial and professional stance when reporting the news (in comparison with one of Berlusconi’s other channels Retequattro, and its laughable ‘news’ broadcasts, panegyrics to the selfless leadership of Berlusconi*).

On thursday night, during the closing remarks on the main evening news, Mentana announced with much regret that the board that controls Mediaset (of which PierSilvio Berlusconi, Silvio’s son, is a prominent member) had decided to replace him with the current director of weekly current affairs magazine Panorama, Carlo Rossella.

While commentators in America are still analysing what exactly went wrong with the Kerry campaign, or indeed what went right with the Bush campaign, most politicians here have opted for the cautious approach when trying to extrapolate specific lessons for Italy. Most, but not all. There are some who have been keen to pull the political moral out of the magician’s hat, as if the American elections were merely a proxy or practice run for Italy’s next general election [due in 2006, though as likely to be in 2005].

Silvio Berlusconi, barely concealing his delight, took the opportunity to lecture the Italian left on the politics of demonization. “There’s a lot to be learned from this election – he told La Repubblica – they [the left] have to understand that no one wins by demonizing their opponent the way that the press and media did with Bush”[1]. Handy for a man who would like to keep his personal conflicts of interest out of the limelight, but he failed to take into account the fact that to a large extent George W.’s election victory was firmly founded on a demonisation of John Kerry -witness the skilfull proliferation of the ‘flip-flopper’ title for Kerry. Bush’s victory has certainly provided Berlusconi with a temporary respite from his political problems (dissapointing European Election results, the loss of key seats, the Buttiglione fiasco, a stagnant economy and fractious coalition partners). Appropriately enough, Berlusconi is pushing ahead, against advice from left, right and centre, with proposed tax cuts