Free Republic

His political career is in tatters while the economy is on a definite low. But Silvio Berlusconi is at least hitting some of the high notes - with his long awaited album of love songs finally being released just as he leaves office. Silver-tongued Berlusconi, 75, who as a young man was a cruise ship singer, had delayed the release of what is his fourth album of ballads as he was trying to sort out the economic crisis which has blighted Italy for months. It had been due out next week after being postponed for months but now seeing as...

Gathered around Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, a small group of unelected EU officials have been assigned the task of governing the eurozone and removing leaders who fail to toe the line, writes the British conservative weekly The Spectator. Fraser Nelson The Old Opera House in Frankfurt – once Germany’s most beautiful postwar ruin and now its most stunning recreation – has become a symbol of European rebirth. And it was here, last month, that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy met the EU’s bureaucratic elite in what would, in another era, be described as a putsch. They had grown tired...

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Monti formed a government of bankers, diplomats and business executives Wednesday, saying the absence of politicians in his Cabinet will spare political parties the "embarrassment" of taking the tough decisions needed to steer the country from financial disaster. The 68-year-old former European Union competition commissioner and his Cabinet were sworn in at a solemn ceremony at the presidential palace that formally ended Silvio Berlusconi's 3 1/2-year-old government and the media mogul's 17-year-long political dominance. Monti faces his first major hurdle Thursday when he presents his legislative agenda to parliament and subjects his government to...

10. He advised investors in New York to relocate to Italy because the secretaries were better looking than their American counterparts. "Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries ... superb girls." He also told the New York stock exchange: "Italy is now a great country to invest in ... today we have fewer communists and those who are still there deny having been one."

Europe’s scorched-earth policies have begun in earnest. The inherent flaws of monetary union have created a crisis of such gravity that EU leaders now feel authorized to topple two elected governments. As I long feared, the flood of cheap credit into Southern Europe and the slow death of Club Med industry by currency asphyxiation have together created such a dangerous situation for world finance that informed opinion is willing to turn a blind eye to EU sovereign trespass. Some even applaud. The Greeks were ordered to drop their referendum on measures that reduce their country to a sort of Manchukuo,...

Italy’s EU colleagues expressed satisfaction with the contents of a letter brought to the summit yesterday (26 October) by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi setting out Rome’s intention to rein in public expenditure and counter contagion from Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. The letter was brought to the summit partly in response to strong pressure by his eurozone heavyweight colleagues, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, at the summit on Sunday (23 October). In a forward to the main terms of the letter – which was addressed to the Presidents of the Council and Commission, Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso -...

May Bunga Bunga boy go out with a smile on his face, for his reputation as the destroyer of the world's seventh largest economy is undeserved... Mr. Berlusconi's biggest sin was taking a bad situation -- the sclerotic Italian economy -- and not improving it, even though his 2008 election victory handed him a large majority, one that he could have exploited to make Italy competitive... But it's a stretch to say the aging Lothario wrecked the economy. That's the common view in "wealthy northern Europe (read: Germany), which is no doubt thrilled that Mr. Berlusconi will seek permanent refuge...

Yes, all the news about Prime Minister Berlusconi is pure puff and nonsense. The Italian economic situation will not change one iota when Silvio steps aside and, in fact, I would argue that the situation will become more volatile. Italy has seen so many governments come and go since the end of WORLD WAR II that it must be the role model for Japan. Mr. Berlusconi may be a scoundrel but the markets and the Italians know what they have and it seems that Berlusconi the known is better than what may come next. If the present government falls there...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, seemingly untouchable media magnate who has brushed off countless scandals and challenges to his rule, appears to have made his final stand. On Tuesday, he passed a crucial budget vote, but failed to muster a majority on the measure, leading to speculation that he will be forced to resign. The situation takes global proportions as the systemically dangerous $2.6 trillion Italian bond market is quickly reaching unsustainable levels with yields on benchmark 10-years surging past 6.7%. “If I must die, I’ll do it in the House,” said a defiant Berlusconi Tuesday, vowing to meet his...

The euro strengthens against dollar after day of drama that saw the Italian prime minister lose his majority in parliament as pressure mounts on the Italian bonds. Unfortunately, what is going on behind the curtain is just sheer chaos. Europe now hinges on the Merkel Government in Germany. What has been done to Greece and now the financial chaos that spreads to Italy, on the one hand people can cheer that some progress seems to be unfolding, but in truth, these may be two heads of state that have just had enough. Berlusconi has been in court over 2,000 times....

Fast developing story out of Rome. No details yet, but you can check it out on the Drudge Report.

ROME — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy won a budget vote in Parliament on Tuesday but the tally showed that he no longer has the support of the majority, a huge humiliation that raised the pressure on him to resign in the face of an escalating debt crisis that has hobbled Greece, threatens Italy and could infect the rest of Europe. The budget vote came hours after Umberto Bossi, a key ally in Mr. Berlusconi’s center-right coalition, publicly asked him to step aside for the sake of the country, the euro zone’s third-largest economy and a new epicenter of...

Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti threatened PM Silvio Berlusconi today that, if the PM doesn't resign, there will be a steep price to pay. Via the Financial Times: “I am saying that on Monday there will be a disaster on the markets if you, Silvio, stay at your post and do not go. Because the problem for Europe and the markets, correct or not as it may be, is in fact you.” The relationship between Tremonti and Berlusconi has long been testy, but this appears to be a serious escalation of the tension between them.

Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly drawn up a "secret pact" under which he will resign in December or January, paving the way for Italy to elect a new government in March. "Don't make a fool of me in Brussels, and I promise that we'll go to elections in March," Mr Berlusconi told the Northern League leader, according to La Repubblica. Mr Berlusconi's government has been in a state of almost permanent crisis since it was re-elected in 2008, with the 74-year-old prime minister assailed by sex scandals, corruption allegations and deep rifts in his shaky coalition.

THE internet naming of 10 Italian politicians as homosexual has caused a furore, with the country's main gay rights group calling it a "wretched rag-bag of gossip" that did more harm than good. The list, including right-wing ministers and members of parliament belonging to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's party, was published today on a US-based weblog. The blog's authors said the aim was "to bring a bit of justice into a country where people have no way of defending themselves against daily insults and attacks from hypocritical politicians". "We decided to start with these 10 names to show clearly how...

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi confirmed that they would be moving toward a balance budget amendment on Friday, after rampant speculation that the European Central Bank would intervene bond markets and purchase Italian and Spanish debt in exchange for structural reforms.

After Berlusconi was scolded by everyone, but most importantly by backstop solvency provider ECB, for his bull in a China shop maneuver of the first, now defunct, Italian Austerity plan, here are the details from the next, soon to be gutted "Austerity", which readers may be forgiven, if they take it with just a grain of salt. According to Bloomberg, the details are as follows: Plan to to include higher retirement age for women from 2014To add 3% tax on income over 500k eurosItaly to approve constitutional law for budget balance SeptTo increase VAT from 20% to 21%. Will...

The conversations were wire-tapped as part of an investigation into an alleged prostitution ring surrounding the prime minister Mr Berlusconi was recorded gloating about the encounters, and lamenting that he could not manage another three women that night. The conversations were wire-tapped as part of an investigation into an alleged prostitution ring surrounding the prime minister. The taped conversations also suggested for the first time that Mr Berlusconi gave money to the women he allegedly slept with, contradicting his repeated insistence that he has never paid for sex. In revelations which are set to test Italian tolerance to the limit,...

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has called upon Hollywood Actor George Clooney to be among his defense witnesses for when he goes on trial. Berlusconi has been accused of having sex with a Moroccan nightclub dancer when she was 17, which is below the legal age for prostitution in Italy.

It is not the sort of appointment Gordon Brown would make to his cabinet. But then Mr Brown is no Silvio Berlusconi, playboy and man of ostentatious political gestures. The Italian prime minister, long known for his fondness for pretty women, has named former topless model and beauty queen Mara Carfagna as equal opportunities minister in his new cabinet. Miss Carfagna, 33, turned to politics after a career on TV following her sixth-place finish in the 1997 Miss Italy contest. She has also posed topless and semi-naked for photoshoots but has always underlined her family values and stressed none of...

Mr Berlusconi describes his parties as "friendly gatherings" Italian newspapers have carried transcripts of phone calls in which PM Silvio Berlusconi allegedly boasts that 11 women were queuing up outside his room to have sex with him. The intercepted conversation was with local businessman Giampolo Tarantini, who prosecutors allege was running a high-level prostitution ring. Eight people are charged with supplying prostitutes for Mr Berlusconi. He has not been charged and says he was unaware of their activities. However, judges want to interview him as a witness over allegations that Mr Tarantini attempted to extort money from him in return...

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday survived a confidence vote that threatened to pull the plug on his conservative government. The 75-year-old prime minister won the vote by 316 to 301. Berlusconi has been under fire for his legal affairs and his handling of the European Union's fourth-largest economy. Italy's has been downgraded by all three of the major credit ratings on concern that the country's pallid economic growth can make it difficult for it to pay off it 1.9 trillion euros in debt. Meanwhile, Berlusconi is on trial in four separate cases that range from corruption to paying...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi avoided a court hearing in Italy today (13 September) regarding a sex and bribery scandal by scheduling meetings with the presidents of the three main EU institutions, who are all from his own center-right political family. … European Commission spokesperson Alejandro Ulzurrun admitted that the idea of holding a meeting between Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Berlusconi, which took place today in Strasbourg, came from the Italian government. He insisted that the leaders had to discuss the "important" issue of Italy's economic situation, and stressed that whenever Barroso received requests from EU leaders for...

“The austerity plan is in chaos. It is time to go back to the drawing board” remarks La Repubblica in its report on the measures announced less than a month ago by the Italian government. As the daily points out, at the time Italy was the target of speculative attacks on the sovereign debt market which threatened to scupper the euro if nothing was done to quickly reassure investors. However the plan that was supposed to rein in Italian debt (which is the second highest in the world when evaluated on the basis of a percentage of GDP) within reasonable...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday he was against NATO intervention in Libya but had to go along with it, an admission that exposed the fragility of the alliance trying to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. NATO warplanes have been bombing Libya under a U.N. mandate, but the alliance is under mounting strain because of the cost of the operation and the failure, after more than three months, to produce a decisive outcome. "I was against this measure," Berlusconi said. "I had my hands tied by the vote of the parliament of my country. But I was against and I...

ROME – Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi told a visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exactly what he wanted to hear Monday, rejecting recognition of a Palestinian state by the U.N. General Assembly and insisting peace must come through negotiations. Netanyahu was in Italy to rally European opposition to plans by the Palestinians to ask the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian state in September. Israel, backed by the U.S., opposes such a move, saying it will only push peace farther away. Berlusconi echoed Netanyahu when asked about the U.N. statehood recognition at a press conference following the signature of several bilateral...

Milan, 23 May (AKI) - Days ahead of a key run-off vote for mayor of Milan, Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi warned the opposition centre-left would turn his hometown into an "Islamic" city overrun by Roma Gypsies and other immigrants. "Milan can't become, on the eve of the Expo 2015, an Islamic city, a city of Gypsies, full of Roma camps and swamped by foreigners, a city that gives voting rights to immigrants in municipal elections," Berlusconi said on Monday. "I don't think that we Milanese consider it a priority to build a beautiful mosque," Berlusconi said in a message...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday that he opposes a unilateral declaration of an establishment of a Palestinian state.

Embattled Italian PM also offers tax breaks to island's residents as critics accuse him of using diversionary tactics... Silvio Berlusconi has put on a vintage display of showmanship, claiming he would empty the island of immigrants within 60 hours, nominate locals for a Nobel peace prize and buy a holiday home there... During a lightning visit to Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, Berlusconi told cheering locals that six chartered ferries were arriving to pick up the remaining 6,000 migrants, mainly young Tunisian men, who have made the sea crossing since the collapse of the Tunisian...

Ex-French defense chief says, despite close defense ties, Israel refused requests to back up claims that Hezbollah stored Scuds in Syria. Despite close defense ties, the defense establishment refused numerous requests from France for evidence to back up Israeli claims that Syria last year transferred long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon, visiting former French defense minister Hervé Morin told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. Last April, Israeli defense officials said that Syria had transferred long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon. A month later, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his Italian counterpart, Silvio Berlusconi, that Hezbollah was storing the...

Milan, Italy (CNN) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be tried on charges of sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power, an Italian judge ruled Tuesday. The trial is due to begin April 6, Judge Cristina di Censo decided, Italian judicial authorities confirmed. Three judges will preside over the criminal trial in Milan. Prosecutors in Milan filed the request for trial last week. Berlusconi denies the charges, and his lawyers have argued that the Milan courts do not have the authority to try a prime minister or jurisdiction over the case because of where the alleged crimes...

More than 100,000 Italian women and their supporters turned out across the country to protest against Premier Silvio Berlusconi, saying his dalliances with young women humiliate the sex as a whole and degrade female dignity. Backers of the 74-year-old Berlusconi, who is under investigation for allegedly paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl, dismissed the protests as strictly political

The phrase "bunga bunga" has become inextricably linked with the private life of Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, and for those who have puzzled over its origins an intriguing new explanation of its meaning has been offered.The comical-sounding phrase made its first appearance back in October, when 17-year-old Moroccan belly dancer Karima El Mahroug - who calls herself Ruby - said she had attended "bunga bunga" parties with other women at Mr Berlusconi's villa in Milan. Italian newspapers immediately scrambled to find out its origins. The finger of blame was initially laid upon Mr Berlusconi's friend Col Muammar Gaddafi, with allegations of...

dogfight over Israel By Arie Egozi on January 27, 2011 10:29 PM Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and Barack Obama may soon be engaged in a "dog fight" over Israel. The competition aimed at selecting a new advanced trainer for the Israeli air force (IAF) already has inputs that are not directly connected to the quality and capabilities of the two potential aircraft. The request for information (RFI) for an advanced trainer for the IAF has been issued to KAI from South Korea and to Alenia Aermacchi from Italy. One is making the T-50 the other one the M-346 . It...

Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama $16,500 (£10,000) worth of gifts during a US visit, in return for a selection of DVDs. The value of Mr Brown's gifts, a pen and holder made from the wood of an anti-slavery ship, along with two biographies of Winston Churchill, was disclosed by the US State Department on Tuesday. Mr Obama, by comparison, gave him a boxset of 25 classic US films such as Citizen Kane and ET.

MILAN -- The Italian government, under pressure from the communications watchdog Agcom, has renewed rules limiting ownership of media outlets that were due to expire on Jan. 1. The move will prevent Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from adding to his already extensive range of media interests. But Berlusconi's government has extended the ban on new cross-holdings of television and print media assets by just three months, and not for another year, as many had expected. The official government gazette says, however, that the ban "might" be extended until the end of 2011. Conflict of interest accusations have dogged Berlusconi since...

He famously once declared that Left-wing Italian women were less attractive than their Right-wing counterparts. But having proved his point by packing his government with ex-beauty queens and showgirls, Silvio Berlusconi is discovering that good looks do not necessarily go with good tempers. In the latest crisis to hit the scandal-ridden prime minister, his tottering centre-right coalition is under threat after a vicious catfight between two of his most glamourous female allies. In one corner is Mara Carfagna, 34, a former topless model who Mr Berlusconi - without any apparent sense of irony - appointed equal opportunities minister two years...

PLAYBOY premier Silvio Berlusconi has been hit by fresh claims he paid a high-class hooker for sex. Stunning Nadia Macri, 28, says she twice spent the night with the Italian PM for £9,000. She also says she witnessed the 74-year-old having sex with several women in a Jacuzzi. Miss Macri made the claims in a statement to prosecutors investigating alleged sex and drugs parties at Berlusconi's holiday villa. oni The brunette was named by a police informant. She also told how marijuana had been offered to women at the parties and that the drug had been on board Berlusconi's official...

ROME – Premier Silvio Berlusconi dismissed calls Tuesday to resign over his involvement with an underage Moroccan runaway - and even created a new uproar by claiming it was better to love beautiful girls than gays.

Italy is set to become the next European country to ban the burka after a government report ruled in favour of the proposed legislation. MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill.

World leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday. “Iran is not guaranteeing a peaceful production of nuclear power [so] the members of the G-8 are worried and believe absolutely that Israel will probably react preemptively,” Berlusconi told reporters following talks with other Group of Eight leaders north of Toronto...

MILAN (AFP) – Italy has a record public debt of 1.813 trillion euros, an increase of 0.8 percent in a month, the Bank of Italy warned on Monday, three weeks after the centre-right government acted to cut overspending. In March, the figure stood at 1.797 trillion euros (2.2 trillion dollars), the central bank said when issuing data for April, without indicating the percentage of gross domestic product that the latest figure represents. Last year public debt reached 115.8 percent of GDP, and it is forecast to rise to 118.4 percent this year. In a bid to clean up public finances...

Italy's postal service intercepted a threatening letter containing a bullet addressed to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, while letter bomb sent to a minister caught fire, police said on Saturday. A large envelope containing a letter addressed to Berlusconi with the threat "you will end up like a rat" was discovered on Friday in a post office in the Libate suburb of the northern city of Milan. The package, which also referred to other leaders of Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party, was addressed to the prime minister's private residence in the Milan region, police said. Berlusconi was in Libya...

Dozens of members of Iran's religious Basij militia tried to attack Italy's embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said. “About a hundred Basij dressed as civilians tried to assault the embassy shouting “Death to Italy” and “Death to Berlusconi,” Mr. Frattini said referring to Italy's prime minister.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian cabinet for a series of joint meetings with the Israeli cabinet. He also hosted a gala dinner for the Italian delegation at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Netanyahu described the leader from Rome as "one of Israel's greatest friends, a courageous leader who is a great champion of freedom and a great supporter of peace." Netanyahu said this despite the fact that the Associated Press reports Italy is the leading trading partner with Iran in the E.U. Berlusconi was one of only three leaders...

Berlusconi, 73, was struck in the face a week ago by a man who broke his nose and teeth after a rally in Milan. An opinion poll by ISPO published in Corriere della Sera newspaper said the aggression had boosted Berlusconi's popularity to 55.9 percent, compared to 48.6 percent in mid-November.

While Silvio Berlusconi recovers in a Milan hospital, his ordeal has whipped up a storm of outrage across Italy. The prime minister has suffered months of attacks in the media over his private life. His supporters say his critics have now gone too far. “Our prime minister has been subjected to an act of physical violence which follows months of verbal, written and televised attacks on him, said politician Fabrizio Cicchitto, a Berlusconi supporter.”

Here is video that shows Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi actually being hit in the face with what appears to be an object thrown at him from a crowd in Milan. The Times Online identifies the object as a metal replica of the Milan Cathedral . . . (VIDEO)