Free Republic

Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon who defied a succession of scandals to tower over Italian politics for decades, has died, according to Italian media. He was 86. Berlusconi’s Mediaset television network announced his death on Monday alongside a smiling photo of the man on its homepage. Italy's longest-serving premier, Berlusconi formed the country's largest media company before using his fame and wealth as the launchpad for a political career that saw him lead Italy three times. He had been diagnosed with leukemia in April after years of ill health and was admitted to the hospital for what doctors described as...

Italian former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed on Friday (Apr 7) to survive another stint in hospital, as the 86-year-old media mogul showed signs of improvement following treatment for leukaemia and a lung infection. The billionaire, a larger-than-life figure who has dominated Italian public life for decades, was admitted Wednesday to the intensive care cardiac unit at Milan's San Raffaele Hospital. On Friday, the Berlusconi-owned newspaper, Il Giornale, ran a front-page photo of a younger, beaming "Cavaliere" from a past election campaign, with the headline, "I won't give in".

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been rushed to hospital with suspected respiratory problems, Italian media has reported. LaPresse news agency, Sky TG24 and Corriere della Sera reported the news, without citing sources. Berlusconi has had a series of health problems in recent years, most recently recovering from COVID-19 in 2020. He told reporters after being discharged from a 10-day hospital stay then that disease had been “insidious” and was the most dangerous challenge he had ever faced. He has had a pacemaker for years, underwent heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016 and has overcome prostate cancer....

Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has defended Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, saying Russia's leader was "pushed" into the conflict."The war in Ukraine is the tip of the iceberg of a conflict aimed at reshaping the world order," she said earlier this month. "So we have to fight this battle."

The three-time Italian premier, who has made a career out of rebounding from legal woes, personal scandal, heart trouble and political setbacks, is running for the European Parliament in May elections. The 82-year-old Berlusconi announced his candidacy with his center-right Forza Italia party Thursday in Sardinia. He said he wanted to “bring my voice to a Europe that should change, a Europe that has lost profound thinking about the world.” Berlusconi had been barred from running for public office for nearly five years due to a tax fraud conviction. Citing his good conduct, a court last year ruled that he...

On May 17, I published an article in the Italian newspaper La Verità about pope Benedict’s abdication. A few days before, in a renowned Italian geopolitical magazine called Limes, Professor Germano Dottori had argued that Joseph Ratzinger’s 2013 abdication, and the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation in 2011, after a financial storm sold to public opinion as a “public debt” crisis, were the result of pressures on the part of Obama administration in the United States. According to Dottori, Obama was eager to dethrone Benedict XVI for two reasons. On the one hand, his presidency was close to...

The euro has recovered some lost ground and is trading at $1.232 so it’s looking like a bit of score-draw for the single currency so far. It’s a bit of a different picture for the Italian stock market which seems set to fall sharply later today. Futures trading points to a 1.3% drop in the Italy 40 index of leading companies, according to online trader IG. ...Italy’s ruling centre-left Democratic Party has admitted it had suffered a “clear defeat” in a general election after coming in third according to projections. ...More than 50% of Italians voters supported populist parties. ...The...

Watching the various immigration debate stories in American media, it’s easy to come away with the impression that this is all something drummed up by President Trump and the “far right” in America (whatever that means these days). But if you pay attention to the foreign press, that’s far from the case. Questions about immigration – both legal and illegal – as well as refugees and the effect they have on host nations are a global phenomenon in the 21st century. In Europe, Germany has been one of the most extreme examples, but similar debates have fired up activists...

A promise of a flat tax by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday sparked sharp reactions from opponents ahead of a general election and head-scratching among economists. Campaigning ahead of a general election on March 4th at the helm of the conservative Forza Italia movement, Berlusconi said on TV late on Thursday that such a tax would start at the current minimum rate of 23 percent, before being brought down to below 20 percent. The remarks by Berlusconi — who never sought to introduce a flat tax during his three terms as prime minister — immediately drew criticism from...

The Main Stream Media and other enemies of the current President are challenging the preposition that President Obama wire tapped President Donald Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. President Trump started this discussion with his tweets over the weekend. It is not unfounded that former President Obama would wire tap President Trump during the election process. This is because he has done this before. Here is a list of individuals who were wire tapped by the Obama Administration. WikiLeaks released the following list on February 23rd (see link here) of Obama Administration wire taps: * The US National Security Agency...

Milan (AFP) - An Italian appeals court on Friday cleared Silvio Berlusconi of having sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power in a surprise ruling that will strengthen the former prime minister on the political scene. "The defendant is acquitted," presiding judge Enrico Tranfa said, requesting silence after gasps from the courtroom. The effectively scraps Berlusconi's seven-year sentence and lifelong ban from holding public office. The judge said there was "no crime" on the abuse of power charge and that Berlusconi's actions "did not constitute a crime" on the prostitution one, promising to publish a detailed explanation within...

(Reuters) Rome - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi repeated accusations on Wednesday that he was forced out of office at the height of the euro zone crisis in 2011 as the result of a "plot" by European Union officials. Berlusconi's comments followed the publication in Italy of extracts from a new book by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner which suggested that EU officials had approached the U.S. government with a project to force Berlusconi to resign. "They wanted us to refuse to back IMF loans to Italy as long as he refused to go," Geithner's book "Stress Test:...

Silvio Berlusconi’s glamorous young partner says she will appeal to Pope Francis to secure the former prime minister a pardon. A day after he was thrown out of the Italian parliament, Silvio Berlusconi’s glamorous young girlfriend has said she will appeal to Pope Francis to secure the former prime minister a pardon. Francesca Pascale, who at 28 is less than half the age of 77-year-old Mr Berlusconi, said she wants to explain the “tragedy” that has befallen her fiancée, after his 20-year parliamentary career was brought to a humiliating end by the vote in the Senate on Wednesday. He was...

ROME — Having spent months manufacturing procedural delays or conjuring political melodrama, Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday could no longer stave off the inevitable: Italy’s senate stripped him of his parliamentary seat, a dramatic and humiliating expulsion, even as other troubles loom on his horizon. In the hours before the vote, Italian senators read speeches for or against Mr. Berlusconi, the once-powerful former prime minister. Mr. Berlusconi responded with an outdoor rally in central Rome, transforming the day into a televised, split-screen standoff: on one screen was the former prime minister, declaring himself a victim of persecution and pledging to remain...

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a busy first day in Rome on Monday, going from the pope to a “Pussy Riot” protest to dinner at the palazzo of his old friend, Silvio Berlusconi. Putin showed off his religious side during his visit to the Vatican, stopping to cross himself and kiss an icon of the Madonna that he gave Pope Francis. But Moscow’s improving relations with the Vatican only went so far: Putin didn’t invite Francis to visit. … Long-running tensions in Russia between Orthodox faithful and Catholics in Russia prevented Pope Benedict XVI and before him Pope John Paul...

Yes, teach us about dialogue. Interfaith dialogue socks a woman who opposes the cloth coffin. That's the kicker. And the chaser is the dhimma West enforcing this barbaric code of savagery.In Italy, "an Italian woman protesting the Burka will be jailed, but not the Muslim immigrant who attacked her to defend his right to abuse women with the Burka." Female Politician Attacked by Muslim Over Burka Protest May be Jailed FrontPage Magazine ‎- Obviously it's the native Italian woman protesting the Burka who will be jailed.Obviously it’s the native Italian woman protesting the Burka who will be jailed, not the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin rallied behind his old friend Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday, saying the former Italian prime minister would not have faced trial for having sex with a minor if he were gay. “Berlusconi is being tried because he lives with women. If he were homosexual, no one would lift a finger against him,” he told a gathering of journalists and Russia experts.

Berlusconi's Bunga-Bunga Strippers Dressed Up as Barack Obama, Says Bellydancer Ruby Silvio Berlusconi's infamous "bunga-bunga" parties featured strippers dressed as US President Obama as well as the more conventional fare of nuns and nurses, according to court testimony by the Moroccan woman at the centre of the scandal. Karima el-Mahroug, 20, was giving evidence at the trial of three former aides to Berlusconi who are accused of procuring her and other women for prostitution. El-Mahroug, a former bellydancer, said she attended about half a dozen parties, using her nickname Ruby. One each occasion, Berlusconi had handed her an envelope containing...

La Republica confirms what we long thought highly likely: The Italian Senate is Ungovernable. A Senate majority takes 158 seats and no party has more than 123 at the moment. The current results look like this: Senate Seat Projections Bersani 104Berlusconi 123Grillo 57Monti 17There are 315 total seats and the total above is only 301. Although 14 seats remain, not even a Monti-Bersani coalition in addition to those 14 seats would bring Bersani's total to 158. Curiously, it appears Bersani received a plurality of the Senate popular vote with 32% compared to Berlusconi's 30.2%. Grillo weighs in with 23.9%, and...

SILVIO Berlusconi provoked outrage on International Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday by defending Benito Mussolini. His remarks coincided with preparations in Rome to build a museum dedicated to the victims next to the former fascist dictator's home. The former Prime Minister told journalists at a remembrance ceremony in Milan that Il Duce was right to ally himself with Hitler. A day after Angela Merkel acknowledged that Germany had "everlasting responsibility" for the Holocaust, Mr Berlusconi said Italy "does not have the same responsibilities as Germany". He added: "Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead...