Silvio Berlusconi doesn’t want to go, even though he’s had an unequivocal heave-ho from Italian voters:
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is refusing to admit defeat in last week’s Italian election despite a court ruling in favour of his opponents.
The Supreme Court has confirmed a narrow win for the centre-left opposition led by Romano Prodi.
But after a meeting with his advisers, Mr Berlusconi let it be known he was considering a further legal challenge.
His economy minister, Giulio Tremonti, told Italian TV that some “anomalies” were yet to be cleared up.
The national co-ordinator of Mr Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, Sandro Bondi, said the court should widen its review to include “irregularities” in overseas voting.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr Prodi had won the lower house by a margin of some 24,000 votes – a similar margin to the one previously announced.
The court had reviewed 2,100 ballots not immediately included in the overall count, as the voting intentions were not clear.
A review of another 3,100 disputed ballots in the Senate was still under way, but was not expected to affect Mr Prodi’s slim Senate victory.
After the ruling, Mr Prodi said there were “no further doubts about our victory”.
“We will work to deserve the trust that our voters have shown us and to earn the trust of those who have legitimately decided to vote for the other coalition,” the 66-year-old Mr Prodi said.
Asked if he had received a telephone call from Mr Berlusconi, Mr Prodi said: “I’m waiting.”
I found this photoshop while googling the terms “Berlusconi” and “ass”:
Don’t know if I’m translating this correctly, but I think it says “The power of a dream: To hoist him by his testicles.”
Could that be a rather unsubtle allusion to the last Italian leader who had far too much power, and refused to step down quietly?
Apparently this post-execution hanging was more than just a macabre display of justice done:
The corpses of Mussolini, his mistress Claretta Petacci, and his henchmen are hanged in Piazzale Loreto in Milan on public display, April 29, 1945. They had been executed the day before some 50 miles to the north in Mezzegra and were now offered to the people who spat on the corpses and kicked them. They were then hanged by the feet. In medieval Italy it was the custom to hang crooks or embezzlers, by one foot. The fact that Mussolini was hung by two feet suggests the deep level of rage and betrayal felt by the people towards their once beloved “Duce”.
Word to the wise (of which Berlusconi probably isn’t one): You’d better not push your luck. Remember what Santayana said?
